Brazos Valley Amber Alert uncovers disappearances faster

As of October 2018, the Brazos Valley – which includes Brazos, Washington, Grimes, Madison, Leon, Robertson and Burleson counties – had a cumulative average of more than 33 missing persons reports per month. As of June 2024, the cumulative average has fallen below 28, according to data from Amber Alert Network Brazos Valley.

Chuck Fleeger, the network's executive director, said the decline is likely because missing children and adults are being found more quickly.

“I think what we in our community — that's law enforcement, our media partners and the community — I think we do a better job of shining a light on something that's is still being produced,” he said. “We have always had missing people and children. It's just something that we haven't necessarily paid as much attention to and I think it's a good thing that we're doing more of it.

In 2023, more than 563,000 missing persons were reported nationally, 66% of which involved minors under the age of 18, according to the National Crime Information Center. In Texas, children make up about three-quarters of the number of missing people. For the Brazos Valley, that percentage is slightly higher, according to Fleeger.

“Over the last 13 years in the region we have recorded on average around 400 missing people, of which just over 300 are missing children, which represents over 76%,” he said. “If you compare us to the rest of the state, we tend to have more missing children. This can influence the composition of our population [or] a number of things. These numbers tell a story, but they don't tell a complete story. »

One of the things not represented in the numbers is repeat cases, which can be the result of a person not receiving the proper help or services the first time, Fleeger said.

“When these children disappear, we will continue to disseminate their information,” he said. “Usually they are running away from something or they are running towards something. There is a risk somewhere and we just haven't identified or addressed that underlying issue yet.

Fleeger said it's reductive to try to generalize about all missing children and adults when in reality, running away or leaving is often a symptom of something else.

“Historically, the prescription has been, 'Well, they're just bad kids from a bad family and they have bad parents,'” he said. “I think it’s dangerous to put them all in the same category, from a societal point of view. [or] use the same broad brush to paint this picture.