Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced on Friday that the city has introduced six new initiatives to help find missing children.
Bowser’s initiatives include increasing the number of police officers assigned to missing juvenile cases and creating a task force to identify what runaway teens need to help their living conditions at home. The city will also provide more funds to nonprofit organizations that work with at-risk teens and get more information out to the public.
As of Sunday, there are 13 missing juvenile cases open, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. All of these children are black or Latinx girls. MPD said there’s no indication of human trafficking in their cases, but it still remains a concern, especially since 40 percent of sex trafficking victims are black and 56 percent of labor trafficking victims are Latinx.
We're highlighting the natl problem of missing children, & we'll provide youth & parents/guardians in DC w the tools they need. #talkdontrun pic.twitter.com/kczPOamK4j
— MurielBowser (@MurielBowser) March 24, 2017
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