State lacks system to pursue missing teens
By Laura Crimaldi
The Boston Herald , April 15, 2007
Untold numbers of teen runaways are going untracked and endangered on Bay State street, spurring officials and child advocates to launch a crusade to repair a fractured response system.
“We need to a formalized system for response of people that are on call 24/7 that know how to engage families, know to engage kids, know how to work on re-entry, how to help that conversation,” said Department of Social Services Deputy Commissioner Susan Getman.
Many Massachusetts teen runaways end up teen prostitutes, drug addicts, even murder victims. But Herald inquiries this week to law enforcement and the state Department of Social Services revealed a fragmented system unable to even identify the total number of runaways in the state.
When children go missing, police can enter their profiles into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Crime Information Center Missing Person File. However, as soon as runaways cross municipal or state lines, the search to find them often becomes lost in the shuffle among multiple local police departments and social services agencies, experts say.
In response, the Department of Social Services and Child Advocates are scrambling to establish:
- A state clearinghouse for all missing children that would collect, organize and disseminate information and missing and exploited kids
- A specialized team of law enforcement, social workers and community members charged with the sole task of searching for missing children
- Accurate statistics on the number of runaways and missing children flooding the streets
Getman said the proposed unit to search for missing children would be made up of law enforcement, social workers and community members and would create a hotline where missing children can be reported.
“It’s being able to act in a timely manner and it’s also about sustaining the search. You can act in a timely manner and still not locate the youngster,” said Getman, who hopes the project could be paid for by grants and reassigning existing personnel.
On April 3, the body of Dorchester runaway Siugerys Garcia, 17, was found in a closet at her boyfriend’s apartment in Lehigh Acres, Fla. Michael Legrand, 19, the boyfriend of Garcia fled to be with in February, has been charged with the homicide.
Of the 24 children listed as missing from Massachusetts with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, seven are described as “endangered runaways.” Nationwide, National Runaway Switchboard estimates that between 1.6 and 2.8 million youths run away each year.
“This is a serious problem in this country and I think people are not so aware of it, even though the numbers are staggering,” said Maureen Blaha, executive director of the Illinois-based NRS. “I often think about it as a silent crisis.”
Runaways tend to bolt from a crisis at home –such as domestic violence, neglect, fights with parents or unplanned pregnancy, experts say. Once on the street, the children are vulnerable to sexual exploitation, drug abuse and other public health and safety risks.
New Statistics from the Teen Prostitution Prevention Project indicate that 70 percent of underage prostitutes identified in Suffolk County since 2005 are now runaways.
The clearinghouse plan pitched by Community Voices would create a Web site where all relevant information about a missing child would be posted. The information includes biographical data, lists of cities and towns where the child might be and law enforcements contacts.
“There’s lack of communication,” said Debbie Savoia, vice president of Community Voices, the advocacy group pushing lawmakers to create the Massachusetts Missing Children Center. “Nobody is really looking for these kids.”
The group hopes the clearinghouse would improve communication with the state’s police departments, the media, and the public.
Getman agrees action is needed.
“It’s really hard for law enforcement to do,” she said. “It’s hard for us to do by ourselves. “It’s hard and terrifying for parents to do by themselves. You really need all those pieces”
The full series "Sunday Spotlight: RUNAWAYS" can be accessed here:
