Of the 803 missing children cases in Ohio, Black children account for the majority of missing youth, a new report from Dayton Daily News states. According to data provided by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, Black youth under the age of 18 account for more than 61% of the total missing youth, despite Black youth only making up about 16% of the state’s youth population, according to census estimates. The state reports that Black children make up 17% of Ohio’s K-12 classes.
Of the children in Dayton, 54 kids were on the attorney general’s list, and more than 60% of those missing children were Black. Dayton’s population demographics by race show the city as being 56% white and 38% Black.
The attorney general’s office clarifies that the data, which comes from the National Crime Information Center, is not an overall list detailing all of Ohio’s missing.
While the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children declares most missing children are runaways (with many being found and safely returned quickly), various experts, including Natalie Wilson, co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation Inc., caution against labeling most missing cases as “runaways,” as it compels people to care less.
“It has a trickle-down effect: If you are classified as a runaway, you do not receive an Amber Alert … and we know awareness is key to finding a missing person,” Wilson said, according to the Dayton Daily News. “The perception is the child is getting whatever they deserve because they left home voluntarily.”
Media exposure, community support, various reporting systems and law enforcement play a large role in helping to solve missing children cases, Wilson says. When some reporting protocols don’t allow reports to be filed until after 24 hours of someone missing, valuable time gets lost. Media coverage alerts those in the community and puts pressure on local police departments to deliver answers for families.
According to the Daily News, Dayton’s Police Department promised that each missing persons case, especially those regarding children, are taken seriously, adding that extensive measures will be performed to ensure each person is “safe and returned home.”
Different factors, like the child’s age, their developmental status, medical needs and whether they are drug dependent or could be in the company of adults who endanger their welfare, are all taken into account to calculate how high-risk the situations are.
“The Dayton Police Department takes every report of a missing child seriously,” Dayton police Lt. Jason Hall said, according to the Daily News. “In addition to a detective whose focus is missing children, we work in collaboration with both federal and local partners to ensure children are safe and returned home.”
In 2020, Ohio law enforcement submitted 16,330 missing children reports. Most of the missing cases were closed with satisfactory results, with over 97% being located and safely returned home by the end of the year. Though, that still left 450 missing cases unresolved.
