Akron typically has 25 to 30 people who are considered missing on any given day.
The biggest challenge in investigating missing person cases involves juveniles who run away often, Akron police Detective Pam Brown said.
Brown, the lone Akron detective who is assigned to such cases, said juveniles who are frequent runaways might be home for a few days and then go missing again. She said police often find them in school, which they consider a safe place.
Parents of habitual runaways may get to the point where they think they’re bothering police and consequently wait a few days or longer in the summertime to report a juvenile missing, Brown said.
But Sgt. John Ross, who supervises the unit that investigates missing person cases, said police will look for a missing juvenile regardless of how often they’ve been reported missing.
“They think they are bothering us,” he said. “We’re like, ‘This is what we do.’”
How many people go missing in Akron each year?
Ross said Akron gets between 1,000 and 1,100 missing persons reports a year. In the past 18 months, he said, 60% to 70% involved juveniles and the rest involved adults.