Yesterday the NSW government announced a $1 million reward for anyone with information regarding the disappearance of missing toddler William Tyrrell.
The reward is the largest in NSW history and police are hopeful it will encourage anyone with information to come forward.
However families of other missing loved ones are calling for there to be uniformity in rewards offered.
Currently in NSW rewards are determined by the NSW Police’s Rewards Evaluation Advisory Committee who lodge an application in line with the investigation to the Police and Justice Minister, reports SMH.
“We are looking to see uniformity because right now it’s arbitrary … it is like weighting a person’s life,” Mark Leveson, whose son Matthew disappeared, and was believed murdered, in 2007, tells SMH.
There is currently a $100,000 reward for information on his son’s whereabouts.
Victoria and South Australia are currently offering $1 million rewards for unsolved homicide cases.
“It’s like saying, ‘This person is worth more than this person’, and that is how it appears to people and to us,” added Faye Levenson. “In our case Matthew’s life isn’t worth as much as the person that got $250,000.”
Questions remain over whether the rewards system actually works.
When Deputy Premier Police Minister Troy Grant was asked whether they would consider a review of the rewards system he told SMH:
“Rewards are one avenue of investigation for police to appeal to the public for information about an unsolved case. The offer of a reward might be enough to trigger someone’s memory or encourage someone who has been withholding information to come forward.”
