Attorney General Yost Releases Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse Annual Report | News

May 24, 2024, press release from the office of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost: (Columbus, Ohio) – Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost today released the 2023 Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse Report in recognition of National Missing Children's Day, which occurs annually on May 25 .

“Local law enforcement is the first line of defense when a child goes missing, and Ohio's sheriff's offices and police departments do a fantastic job reuniting missing children with their families,” Yost said. “Even though we celebrate a 98% reunification rate, one missing child is one child too many – BCI stands ready to help. »

The information center recorded 22,374 missing people in 2023, 1,757 more than the previous year. Among them, 17,405 concerned missing children, 1,950 more than the previous year.

Fortunately, authorities reported that 98 percent of the missing children – or 17,033 of them – were found safe by the end of the year. Open source data revealed that five of the missing children were found deceased in 2023.

How data is collected

When a child goes missing, the first step is to notify local law enforcement, who creates a missing child report. Law enforcement agencies then enter the data into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. NCIC is managed by the U.S. Department of Justice and is a federal database used to index missing persons and criminal information. Once a child is found, the report is closed and the case is updated in the NCIC.

The Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse then receives statistics on missing persons within the state that have been recorded in the NCIC and publishes an annual report to raise awareness of the problem of missing children. Additional training, assistance, and resources are available to local law enforcement through the Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

What the data tells us

Law enforcement is required to submit information about missing children to the NCIC, but reporting additional specific details about a case may be sporadic if the information is not readily available or if the child is found before so that additional information can be added.

Click here to see data by region

The annual report released today details all missing persons entries for which the circumstances have been specified:

• 9,469 cases involved runaways, where a child leaves a home without permission and spends the night away.
• 35 cases involved noncustodial parent abduction, where a parent, other family member, or other person acting on behalf of a parent keeps or hides a child, depriving another person of custody or visitation rights .
• 15 cases concerned kidnapping by a stranger.

Additionally, Ohio law enforcement agencies issued 13 AMBER Alerts in 2023 as part of the Ohio AMBER Alert plan involving 17 children. Sixteen children were recovered safely; a child is still missing.

Ten endangered missing child alerts were also issued, involving 12 children. Fortunately, all the children were recovered safely.

BCI Missing Persons Unit

The Ohio Missing Persons Unit is housed within the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), which operates the Missing Children Clearinghouse. Part of BCI's Criminal Intelligence Unit, the Missing Persons Unit coordinates resources, facilitates rapid responses to missing persons cases, and provides immediate access to important investigative tools. In addition to focusing on missing children, the Missing Persons Unit plays a critical role in cases and issues related to missing adults, human trafficking, and unidentified human remains.

The Missing Persons Unit has a toll-free 24-hour hotline (800-325-5604) to respond to calls from law enforcement, parents and community members. A database of missing persons in Ohio is available on the Attorney General's website.

A full copy of the 2023 report is available on the Attorney General's website.

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