Operation We Find You was successful
We have seen their faces on news reports, milk cartons, and posters on telephone poles and have received Amber alerts and missing and endangered child notifications on our phones. We now have validation that when US agencies work together large numbers of these teens and young children can be recovered. On March 2 the US Marshal Service launched Operation We Find You with the goal of locating missing children in areas of the US that have "high clusters" of missing minors.
“The U.S. Marshals Service is fully committed to the important mission of protecting the American people, especially our most vulnerable population – our children,” said Ronald Davis, Director of the Marshals Service. “The results of this operation underscore that commitment but also highlight the necessity of these critical efforts.
The very next day they located a 15-year-old girl from Loudon County, who was in the company of a 30-year-old man, and at the end of the 10-week operation there has been a great success. There have been 225 minors safely found in 16 locations throughout the nation. Fourteen of them are from Virginia and the youngest child is only 6 months old.
Our continued success can only be achieved through our collaboration with state and local law enforcement agencies, and partnership with NCMEC. Together, the USMS and NCMEC have recovered over 3,100 missing children since the passage of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act in 2015.”
The US Marshall Service is committed to locating missing children
The breakdown of the closed cases indicates that 86% of the missing children were endangered runaways, and close to 9% were family abductions. Only 5% were considered "otherwise missing." A testament to the diligence of those involved is that 62 percent of the missing minors were recovered within only seven days of the U.S. Marshals Service assisting with the cases.
“NCMEC is proud of our long-standing partnership with the USMS and commends them and the participating state and local agencies who helped recover the 225 endangered missing children.”
. Operation We Find You is the first effort of its kind and with the success rate they just experienced hopefully it will not be the last and more missing children in Virginia and around the nation will be safely found.
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