- Monday, September 9th marks Florida Missing Children's Day.
- Neighbors can attend a ceremony at Tallahassee Automobile Museum honoring past and present missing children.
- Watch the video for a recap on how local leaders and law enforcement are upping resources.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Monday, September 9th marks Florida Missing Children's Day.
Here's a look at how the community will recognize past and present missing children in Florida and what leaders and law enforcement in our community are doing to combat the crime.
Monday, neighbors are invited to gather at the Tallahassee Automobile Museum at 10 A.M. for a ceremony in remembrance of every missing child in Florida and in honor of the efforts the community is doing to stop it from happening.
According to Tallahassee Police Department, 177 children were reported missing between January and June of this year.
In June, one year after Tallahassee teenager Lori Paige was last seen, ABC 27 sat down with the Tallahassee Police Department to learn how it has shifted its way of alerting neighbors about missing cases. For example, alerts no longer label suspected runaway cases.
"The question came up, why, why do we do this?," Lawrence Revell, Tallahassee Chief of Police said. "What was the significance of putting that on there? And I just didn't like the fact that it was on there. Because for some people in our community, that may lessen the severity of it, if they see runaway, they think, oh, not a big deal, let's not waste a lot of resources on that, when in essence, that really has nothing to do with anything."
The department told us it would put more resources into finding missing persons. An effort set to launch in conjunction with Florida Missing Children's Day.
We also heard from Leon County about how it's supporting law enforcement through a public awareness campaign educating neighbors on how to access and sign up for those alerts.
Jesse Jones, Neighbor - "You have to have awareness and you don't have awareness if nobody is signed up for something. So, if that's the case where people are opting out, then you need the community to step in."
Efforts that neighbors like Jesse Jones, a father of three, say are necessary for the sake and well being of the children in our community.
Jones - "I'm a parent so it makes me feel safe that, if my kid goes missing, there are resources out there and there's support."
Authorities say the best way to join the fight against this kind of crime is to sign up for missing child and amber alerts at MissingChildrenAlert.com
