RCPD talks missing versus runaway, why they don’t notify the public for every missing kid

RAPID CITY, S.D. — As of November 4, 19 minors from Rapid City, Pennington County, and Box Elder are listed in the South Dakota Missing Persons Clearinghouse. 14 of those went missing within the last month.

So how come the public isn’t notified every time a minor is reported missing?

Rapid City Police say it comes down to the numbers.

“We literally have a number of these everyday – and if we sent one out for every child who ran away, they would get ignored,” says RCPD Lieutenant Tim Doyle.

Lt. Doyle says they choose to notify the public about cases for a variety of reasons; sometimes when they’re out of leads and need more help.

“The difference is on when we put something out to the media or put something out on Facebook that is the level of maybe…danger that the child is in,” Lt. Doyle says.

And what about the terminology – “missing” versus “runaway”?

Doyle says when it comes to minors – it’s pretty much the same thing.

“As soon as a youth is not someplace where their parents want them to be or knows where they are they’re considered a runaway,” Lt. Doyle says.

He says the vast majority of those reported missing actually haven’t been abducted.

“They’re just a runaway from their parents.” Lt. Doyle adds, “They’re someplace where their parents don’t know or don’t want them to be.”

It takes a large amount of resources – from patrol time to detectives – to investigate missing cases.

Police consider runaway behavior an early indicator that kids are on the path to criminal activity. They say they’re working on more prevention and intervention programs to help runaways earlier.