Responding to recent reporting on increases in the numbers of missing juveniles in Cleveland, police officials say they have no evidence of kidnapping or child trafficking as a main cause of the problem.
During a Wednesday press conference, Cleveland Chief of Police Wayne Drummond said that based on his 34 years of experience, including time as deputy chief of operations and as a district commander, a high percentage of the kids reported as missing are habitual runaways.
“The vast majority of them are returned within a day or two, or by the end of the year, most of them return home,” Drummond said.
Recent reporting from Channel 19 and Fox News found that in a two-week period in May, 27 juveniles were reported missing in Cleveland. Drummond said there were 1,072 kids reported missing this year, a 20 percent increase over last year.
Drummond could not point to a reason for the increase, but said 1,020 had been found or returned home.
“We don’t have anything in the city of Cleveland right now that would indicate, through our investigation, that we have individuals targeting our kids or using them in human trafficking or otherwise,” Drummond said.
The city investigates any report of a missing person and there is no minimum amount of time that has to pass before a missing person report can be filed. Each police district has a detective and a patrol car during each shift dedicated to missing persons investigations. There’s also an officer downtown who reviews every report, looking for red flags.
“Any child that’s missing, I believe under 13 years of age, they actually get elevated up to my level,” Drummond said.
Drummond said all reports are investigated, but a child who leaves their home after an argument is handled differently than a report of a child being taken off the street, which immediately goes to the commander in that district and all detectives are assigned to respond.
The reporting on missing persons in Cleveland started with the city’s publicly available list of missing persons, which can include a photo, the missing person's name and the part of the city where the report originated.
