Friday, February 4, 2011
Investigative load
Talked to a parent who wasn't very happy that we had not dropped everything and called out the National Guard to look for her runaway daughter. I understand her fear, and I can't hardly blame her. But here's the reality: we are barely a month into the calendar year, and so far this year we have investigated 178 missing person cases in Lincoln. Last year's total was 2,244.
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13 comments:
If I would write a book it would be called:
What to do when a youth runs from home for dummies.
I do not know the percentage of youth who go A.W.O.L that come from a drug and alcohol infested home, or the number who run from a home that has clear expectations and consequences. My guess is the former is the more common.
My opinion my get some critics, but sometimes good medicine tastes bad.
First, a parent is a jack of all trades. Waiter, cook, maid and, yes, you guessed it, police officer.
Ok, not to lobby the readers to go out and imitate Sgt. Joe Friday from drag net, but here is the idea. A parent must know where, when, and who a son-daughter hangs with. Keeping a list like Santa helps to find those missing teens. If your child is running with another peer who has parents that have very poor parenting skills, you can forget about any cooperation from those kind.
Now the bad tasting meds get handed out (dental chair music please)
Do not expect our police to go out of the way to search for a youth that you have no idea where, who, when, he or she is/was with. Rather, do your part now. Be a snoop, demand contact numbers. Quit being a friend to your child and be a parent. They will thank you in the long haul.
Although that sounds like a staggering amount, average per day in 2010 was 6.15 missing persons invesitgated daily and for this year so far it would be 5.09 missing persons investigated daily. Of course, normally you really can't miss only part of ones person, right? I think the wording you used, "Runaway" and not "Missing" are very different in the nature of the call for service-no need to call National Guard. I'm going to put out there my thoughts, "Parents need to take a much more active roll in their kids/childs lives." A parent who is able to do a little at home "Investigative Work/Police Work," I think would have a deterrence on say, "Mailboxes Exploding, young teens showing up at home drunk and just plan misbehaving. The police are not mom or dad, if your son hits your daughter, be parents and fix it!! If your son or daughter robs CVS that's when the Police get involved. I realize this won't change the way some people think, but I cringe when I get my morning area crime mapping report and an Officer has to make a report on brother pushed sister in argument over Wii. Like LPD Officers don't already have enough to do with calls backed up on MDT's.
Rant out.
Lincoln Police Officers, keep up the good work!!
Thanks Chief.
Chief,
How many times had her daughter previously ran away, and how old was she? Some kids make a habit out of it.
I make sure my kids don't runaway.
How many individuals made up those 178 cases? How many of those individuals were runaway/missing in more than one case?
I'm just curious chief, how many times has her daughter run away before this?
I think I've been missing for years now. I'm not sure anyone is even looking for me.
Chief,
I am an Uncle of Ryan Johnson, the victim of Dallas Huston who was found guilty of second degree murder just a few hours ago. I want to thank ALL of the officers who were involved in this investigation. I talked to several of you during the investigation but I know there were many others working behind the scenes that played a part. The prosecutors did a fantastic job and I want to thank them also.
Dallas Huston caused a lot of suffering to the members of my family. He also caused a lot of grief for his own family. Ryans parents,Grandmother, relatives and friends have been through hell since 09/16/2009. We will finally be able to accept the fact that Ryan is gone and in the hands of God.
Dallas may have at least twenty or more years to make things right with God. God can forgive him. I hope he can make things right with God sometime in the next twenty or more years. His family members will be suffering till they leave this Earth. So in a way his Grandmother and parents will be ongoing victims of his selfish acts.
Just for the record I am still convinced it was a premeditated murder but that would have been difficult to prove. I am going to let you decide whether or not you want to publish this on your blog or just keep it in your files. If you want to put it on this blog that is fine with me.
Dennis Lorance
As the parent of an (ex) run-away Daughter, I can tell you that, calling the Police is not (usually, I would assume) the best option. But, in our case, we knew where she was, and we knew she was safe, and there wasn't anything we (or our local PD) could do to make the situation better, until all of our emotions had settled down. Jim J, you're absolutely correct - the harder my Wife and I tried to keep her "in-line", the worse the situation became at home. And (in my opinion) we're not controlling parents. She was the third Daughter we had raised, and she had more freedoms than the first two, and we had (relatively-speaking) minor issues with them. Chief, I would think that the majority of the "Missing Persons" reports you receive, come from scared, frustrated & angry parents and/or spouses, and they work themselves out, given enough time. While my heart goes out to the "victims" of a run-away, local authorities should only be contacted if there are legitimate fears that their personal safety is at risk.
I would be interested in the data on a break down of how many of these are repeat runaways. How many are walkaways from a DHS homes? How many are elderly people with a mental illness? How many are called in cause "my wife won't answer her cell phone for a half an hour after she left the bar with a male friend" type calls or my college age kid won't answer their phone for 2 hours? Just curious.
Chief-High tech solution for the serial-runaway. Microchip GPS tracking device. Available today. Fits your Future Cop theme of the other day.
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Doesn't even necessarily have to be implanted. Some missing persons are already carrying around their GPS chip--in the phone that they cannot put down or live without.
I hope this wasn't the mother who found her daughter in the parking lot of Super 8 on west O street last night.
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