In most years, more than 40,000 children are reported missing in Canada. That's a shocking number, but here's some good news: the overwhelming majority are found within 24 to 72 hours. Reducing that time is the singular focus of the small but tech-mighty team and their citizen and corporate partners at the Missing Children Society of Canada (MCSC), founded in Calgary in 1986.

“It’s not the fact we find these children that’s our moment of relief – it’s how fast we can do it. If we don't find them quickly, the risk of exploitation is much higher than any of us want to contemplate. The technology we’ve developed means we can change their future trauma immensely,” said Amanda Pick, CEO at MCSC.

In early 2021, The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) identified MCSC’s Child Search Network as an important national resource that bridges the “response gap” for high-risk missing children cases that do not meet the criteria for an AMBER Alert.

THE CHILD SEARCH NETWORK

Historically, the only national system in place to inform people about a missing child has been the AMBER Alert, which is reserved for kids under 18 judged to have been abducted and to be in imminent danger.

In 2020, of the 32,000 children reported missing in Canada, less than one percent warranted an AMBER Alert. Missing children who do not meet these criteria but are nevertheless vulnerable to abuse and trauma require another support program to help bring them home.

In 2011 to 2012, MCSC resolved to harness technology to support police in their frontline response. The non-profit partnered with local Calgary tech companies to build pilot apps, the first of which focused on social media, enabling the sharing of police information about missing children.

“We knew that social media allowed for a quick and broad amplification of information, but there was an opportunity and a need for geographically-specific info sharing,” said Pick.

ESRI TO THE RESCU[E]

Missing Children Society of Canada rescu app

“Imagine taping a poster about a missing child to more than a million telephone poles in less than five minutes,” says Pick. That’s the power of the Child Search Network, MCSC’s powerful communication tool powered by social media and a high-tech app called “rescu.”

The rescu app (available from the App Store and Google Play) pairs databases and workflows developed by Microsoft with Esri's ArcGIS Hub technology to show open/active cases on dynamic maps and push alerts to people in specific locations.

And by “specific,” we’re not necessarily talking about provincial or even civic specificity – the network can alert people on a specific street that a child has gone missing nearby. The native app includes a “drive-time” map that draws the probable boundaries of the distance a person could travel – on foot or by vehicle – within a certain amount of time, given current traffic conditions, from the location where a child has gone missing. That helps further police investigations and alerts citizens in the likely areas to be on the lookout.

MCSC rescu leverages a number of Microsoft services. Microsoft Flow combines AI and simple drag-and-drop tools to automate repetitive tasks, such as sending alerts to social media platforms; and Microsoft LUIS (Language Understanding Intelligence Service) scrapes websites for information about missing children and sends this information to Esri’s ArcGIS Online, which creates cloud-based software to create and share interactive web maps.

MCSC team members can spend their valuable time on more important tasks, saving both time and effort – and potentially saving the lives and wellbeing of children who have gone missing.

Accessible via any browser on both desktop and mobile, the rescu app lets citizens register to get SMS alerts when a child goes missing in their area. They can also search the continually updated database and region-based interactive story maps to view all existing cases and submit tips to the police. The rescu app works across every Canadian jurisdiction, making collaboration easier and communications much quicker.

MADE IN CALGARY

Over the last decade, MCSC has drawn its strength from Calgary’s spirit of entrepreneurialism – Calgarians and companies coming together to find out how to do things differently and impactfully.

“That Calgarian spirit has led us to global recognition for creating a uniquely effective way to protect kids through tech,” says Pick.

WestJet was one of MCSC’s earliest partners. “They are humble,” said Pick, “and are reluctant to be recognized. But their gift of flight not only allows our team to investigate all over the place, but also allows for quick reunification, not just in Canada but internationally.” According to Pick, the airline got involved as soon as they were first asked, and have continued to help by piloting the tech, providing feedback, and leveraging their reach to Canadians.

In that, they’re not alone: all 14,000 City of Calgary employees and every member of the Calgary Police Service are also app users. Pick observes that this first-of-its-kind instruction is perhaps the most important way corporations can be helpful to MCSC.

“This is the social model that makes our tech so powerful,” she said. “And thanks to Calgarians we’re answering some pretty big questions. How do we work differently? How do we come together as citizens and corporations and police? Calgary has led this effort and we’ve now reached a profound moment where we are seeing a new model of cooperation working effectively toward an important result: no missing child in Canada who goes unseen.”

Apart from Westjet, many other Calgary companies have contributed to the success of MCSC. Inter Pipeline has been a long-time partner, providing not only financial support but also making sure their employees are part of MCSC’s mission. Since 2017, the Alberta Motor Transport Association has been expanding MCSC’s network via their commercial transport drivers as they make deliveries across the nation. And the Calgary Foundation and TELUS are also among the society’s faithful supporters.

LONG-STANDING PARTNERSHIPS WITH MICROSOFT & GOOGLE

MCSC has been working with Microsoft since 2015. “Their support has meant that we can extend our reach across Canada through their cloud,” said Pick.

MCSC made a keynote presentation at Microsoft’s 2016 Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, where the software giant highlighted their partnership. Pick and her team have since worked with Microsoft’s Canadian and global teams to develop MCSC’s ground-breaking application.

“Microsoft told us they wanted to use every resource that they had to help MCSC digitally transform a country – and they did,” said Pick.

Microsoft has also sponsored hackathons in Calgary, Toronto, and Seattle to generate new ideas around how to find missing children and how to help kids self-identify if they need an intervention.

“Our app’s data processor came out of one of those hackathons,” says Pick. “It brings in all the case info so that Canadians can view it in real time. In the rescu app, cases are listed by geography, and it’s the only place where you can see case information from police across the nation. Microsoft built that for us.”

Tech giant Google has also supported MCSC; it has made financial contributions and contributed volunteer support through a Board position. In their first co-hosted events, Microsoft and Google sponsored private gatherings in Calgary and Vancouver, to which they invited other tech companies to discover if they could contribute to MCSC’s success.

NATIONAL RESOURCE

In early 2021, MCSC and the Child Search Network were recognized by The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP). CACP now urges “all police services to adopt and implement the Child Search Network as a standard practice in all high-risk missing children investigations in Canada.”

The network is already in use by many police services across Canada, and MCSC continues to work closely with the RCMP’s National Centre for Missing Persons & Unidentified Remains and the CACP to deliver this technology solution to all police services in Canada.

WHAT’S NEXT

“Abductors of children need two things,” said Pick. “They need time and they need anonymity. MCSC and our partners are depriving them of both.”

MCSC is now expanding the network to scale and exploring ways to plug the network into other digital channels across Canada, by involving more motor transportation companies, rideshares, rail, and air.

They’re also reaching out to other tech companies in pursuit of disseminating case information more widely and quickly, with more accuracy. MCSC represents Canada alongside the RCMP in the Global Missing Children's Network, which brings together agencies from more than two dozen countries globally, and is excited to bring its cutting-edge tools to the search for missing children around the world.

“We seem to be larger than life, but that’s because we’re so well supported,” said Pick. “We’re a small but mighty team that’s experiencing global success thanks in part to the hard work of our technology partners, our corporate partners, and everyday citizens across the country.” MCSC now has the ability to work with even the largest companies and, within moments, have every employee connected to the MCSC network.

Connect your workplace with MCSC at rescu.mcsc.ca. For more on opportunities at innovative companies who are embracing technology to solve global challenges in Calgary, visit the Live Tech, Love Life careers page.

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MCSC: Protecting vulnerable children with technology