Case of missing man renews push to track hikers on North Shore trails

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NORTH VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The latest disappearance of a hiker on the North Shore is adding new urgency to a push to improve public safety in the area.

The idea of setting up cameras on trail heads has gotten pushback in the past over privacy concerns.

North Vancouver District Mayor Richard Walton says a number of possibilities are being looked at, but finding something that does the job while still respecting privacy laws may take a new innovation.

“Our staff are still working on this and trying to find some possible solution but we can’t completely ignore the existing privacy laws is the problem we have,” explains Walton.

He adds the case of 21-year-old Liang Jin, who’s been missing for more than one week, has brought this back into focus.

“If there’s any way we can even, on a voluntary system… have people agree to document — in a confidential situation — that they’ve gone into a particular backcountry trail through a photograph and a brief opportunity to recognize them, I don’t think this technology’s in existence anywhere,” says Walton.

“But I think that obviously, with more and more people in a growing city venturing into these areas unprepared, I think we need to be a little more proactive and I’m certainly supportive of the North Shore Rescue’s Tim Jones’ initial comments a year and a half ago. The question is how do we do it and do it within the spirit of the law. At the same time, obviously, there’s an urgency to move forward.”

It’s an issue Walton promises to continue to pursue.

“I think we may need to find some way of doing it with technology that hasn’t been done before because we have quite a unique situation here with an urban area that is virtually accessible on regular bus routes, where you literally, within five minutes you can be from downtown you can get off a bus, and within five minutes, you can be in a wilderness area with significant risk, and I think Vancouver perhaps in this part of the world, is a little bit unique in that respect, so yes, I’ll certainly be continuing to push to find some resolution to this.”

Walton says staff need to find some way that would allow for people to have the option of documenting their moving beyond a certain point through some kind of video transaction.

He’ll be asking staff to step up their creative thinking in coming up with a solution.

He doesn’t think simply putting cameras up will solve the problem; it also comes down to people being able to assess the risks in the backcountry.

“Even if you do have a documentation of somebody going into a remote area, you don’t know that they may not have come out, and it’s going to take more than just a photograph of somebody going in,” he argues.

Walton adds education is critical.

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