Despite an admission that Ohio police departments are unable to process and investigate the number of missing children reports and face challenges in accurately recording missing children cases, Newburgh Heights Police Chief John Majoy said that a recent spike in cases could be a sign that human trafficking and drug cartel activity may be behind many of the disappearances.
Human smuggling investigation leads to 8 arrests. Transported migrants in ‘deplorable conditions’ including suitcases and water tanks.
“BIDENS AMERICA” Open borders, defund police, crime increasing across America, gangs, drugs, child abuse, sex slaves and the list goes on.
— Conservative American (@honor_country) September 14, 2022
Majoy was quick to clarify that a large percentage of the 1,072 kids reported missing in 2022 were found and returned home, but also told Fox News that the police were not confident about why the number of missing children had recently climbed. The Cleveland-Akron area reported 45 missing children in September, a significant increase over the 35 kids reported in August.
Nationwide, numbers of missing children are harder to nail down. Some estimates put the annual number around 350,000, while other advocacy groups frequently publish numbers ranging in the three-quarters of a million range.
The advocacy group Child Find of America reports that the most common reason for children to go missing is runaways or throw-aways, a term used to indicate that custodians simply abandon children. Around 99% of these kids are found and returned home where about 21% face sexual or physical abuse.
Child Find of America says that between 1999 and 2013, the number of missing children varied only slightly. The data the organization used claimed 1.5 million missing children in 1999 with just 50,300 being abducted. Just 115 nationwide were stereotypical kidnappings in which children were taken by a non-relative with the intention of keeping them permanently.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is calling on the public to help police officers with locating missing children and identifying predators. Yost said that law enforcement is often slow to enter information into databases and lacks the resources to investigate each and every case in depth.
Ohio has long sought additional funding for police, even in the face of outcry by Democrats who mistakenly believe fewer cops make the streets safer for law-abiding citizens. During the coronavirus pandemic, Toledo, Ohio Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, a Democrat, went so far as to tell voters to vote for now-former President Trump if they wanted to defund police following criticism of COVID-era funding to large cities which did not aid many of the small towns in Ohio.
Underfunded and overworked police departments are not only unable to investigate missing children but they are increasingly being forced to spend time addressing rising numbers of illegal immigrants pouring into the country in response to President Biden’s open border policies.
The surge in illegal immigration has led to potentially hundreds of thousands of cases of child abduction involving migrants. Recent news stories show the number of illegal immigrants arrested for abducting U.S. children is increasing at an alarming rate. Many children who are abducted are sold into the sex trade and are trafficked for profit before being killed or abandoned.
The increase in cases in Ohio is not unique to the state. Most states are reporting increasing numbers of missing children and abductions in recent years. Falling revenues for police departments and a federal government that is tone-deaf to the needs of parents have only made the problem worse.
