BRITISH COLUMBIA DISASTER RESPONSE MODEL:

Disaster Victim Identification Unit (DVI)

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This guide contains general information only and is not intended as legal advice. For legal advice, contact a lawyer. (PDF Version, 1,084 kb, PDF Help)

Ms. Carolyn Sinclair,
Executive Director,
British Columbia Police Victim Services

Federal Symposium on April 27th,
in commemoration of National Victims
of Crime Awareness Week 2009

Overview

• Role of the Coroner
• Disaster Victim Identification (DRI)
• Roles & Responsibilities of the Coroner - Mass Fatality Incident
• Purpose – Family Liaison Centre
• Bridging Opportunities with Police-Based Victim Service Workers in BC

Coroner – Traditional Investigative Role

• Who? - Identify the deceased
• When? - Date & time
• Where? - Place
• How? - Cause of death
• By what means? -Events leading to cause of death
• Classification - Natural, homicide, accident,suicide, undetermined
• Prevention of death
• Make appropriate recommendations

Disaster Victim Identification
DVI's piece of the puzzle

• Unit mandate is to positively identify decedents & provide efficient, effective disaster response

DVI

Background

• Consequence of other activities
  • new forensic identification technology
  • missing women investigation
  • case management reviews
• Helped identify necessity for specialized identification unit

Key Activities

• Recent focus has been on identification -cold case files
• DVI is a support service
  • Historical & current U/I remains investigations, irrespective of cause of death
  • Policy development, implementation of new technology
  • Disaster Response

Disaster Response Coordinator
New position within the BCCS

• Disaster Response Coordinator
• October 15, 2007

DVI Mantra

• Prepare
  • in the event of a mass fatality incident, execute a plan that is already in place
• Adapt
  • each incident has its own complexities & requires adaptation to a certain degree
• Succeed
  • Change basic plan accordingly; as & when required

Using "Lessons Learned" to Prepare
Strategic focus on preparedness is vital to an agency

• Preparedness directly determines success of the response
• Identifies weaknesses & gaps
• Enables intelligent research to ascertain where BCCS can grow, change, & adapt to be better prepared

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