sarx
Verified Expert/Professional in SAR and K9SAR
This is such a tough one. I totally agree that something needs to be done to distinguish these cases. I am lucky (I guess you can call it that, LOL) to know and be on good terms with several people in LE from a variety of agencies and have spent the past couple of weeks really talking about and delving into the issues with MP.
The biggest problem is the sheer volume of MP/TRAK/BOL flyers they receive daily. One Lt. I talked to who works MP's for a midsize county receives an average of 15 a day for his own county alone. 99% of these are runaways and group home issues that are often solved in a day or two on there own but have to be followed up because nobody bothers to call in and let them know the person came back. He is also in charge of rape/sexual assault, crimes against children and MP's, you can kind of see which one is going to take the lowest priority generally speaking. That is just what comes in from his direct county. Then you add on to that the Wanted and MP flyers from surrounding counties and states and he literally has a weekly stack that is about 10 inches tall (I saw it, no joke). And then there are the ones that haven't even printed yet. It's up to 1 person to go through hundreds of these a week and figure out which ones are a priority and which aren't all the while working on cases and investigations for rape, child abuse, etc. It's just not humanely possible to do this effectively.
In a case like Kayleah's her age should be a trigger and should put her at the forefront, but the sad fact is that 12 yo's running away is all too common and calls are made all the time looking for them. Generally they just show back up and we never hear about it, but it's not an unusual thing at all.
With a recent autistic case I was working I was lucky enough to know someone in the next county, call them up and tell them where the MP would cross over if they did jump county lines so those areas were notified. That's not a luxury most people have. And with caseloads it's not something LE often has time for either. Very few depts have a dedicated officer to MP and/or if they do they are working a ton of cases. People were bashing the LE in the autistic case for not doing enough. In reality they had searched everywhere they could think of near his home and local haunts. They were following up on leads, but in the meantime, the detective was also prepping for two murder trials and in court on a third as well as investigating a murder the same weekend. Nothing gets to stop and he couldn't go to the court and stop that ball rolling. KWIM?
I don't see how the system will change, they are short staffed, some are working as hard as they can and some are just incompetent but either way it's the govt. and we can't change their procedures. What we can do however is learn how to make a difference as a community. In the coming weeks you will hear more from me on how this can happen. In the mean time, if someone goes missing in your area get out there and start IMMEDIATELY. The first 24 hours is critical. We are lucky on these boards, we tend to hear about things quicker than the GP. Pepper the area with flyers, talk to other community members and make sure everyone knows about the MP, go and hike areas that are open to the public and look for the person, search your own property if you live near the PLS. Do not interfere with LE but do ask what you can do, if they say nothing then take the steps above and do them. There is way more that can be done by the community than generally is.
HTH
