Missing Missing Children?

Published May 23 2007, 02:13 PM by David S. Bernstein

So, a year and a half after I wrote that the state lacks any coordinated effort to locate missing children, not even placing their faces on their public safety web site, the state has unveiled such a web site, according to the Herald. I must have missed the press release.

Mmm, no, there doesn't seem to have been a press release. And I had a hell of a time trying to find the page -- I finally found it through a site search, and then worked backwards to figure it out. From the EOPS home page, you scroll down and click on "Law Enforcement & Criminal Justice." From the list that brings you to, click on "Law Enforcement." That calls up a list that includes -- for the first mention to that point, as far as I can tell -- "missing & wanted," which brings you to another list, where you can select "missing children." And voila! there you are.

I'm no expert, but I think that to be effective, the site has to be a little more accessible, and promoted.

It's also awfully limited at the moment, with only 30 photos, mostly those missing for years. What's really needed is for local and state police to promptly forward new cases -- that don't qualify for Amber Alerts but are considered risks -- and for EOPS to quickly post them. An email or RSS alert system would be nice.

One last thing: a large percentage of missing children are runaways from DSS situations. Not to pile on the beleaguered agency, but it has done a shameful job on this issue, and needs to improve.