Suffolk County Police rolls out new approach to solve missing persons cases
SELDEN, N.Y. -- It can be a source of great anguish for a family -- a loved one disappearing without a trace. Often, there is little police can do to track him or her down.
On Monday, police in Suffolk County rolled out a new approach to try to solve more missing cases.
There is a new focus on an a sometimes forgotten population -- the missing. Volunteer community ambassadors are now assisting Suffolk police by distributing flyers. Among the missing is 12-year-old Mertcan Cakmak and 65 others like him are missing in the county.
"Everybody has access to social media. Everybody has a phone. We can share all this information, even if we just get one kid at a time home," community ambassador Gail Lynch-Bailey said.
It's part of a new push to solve these painful cases. For Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison, it's personal.
"I had a family member missing and the trauma it brought to my family, this is something that we all need to prioritize," Harrison said.
He's introducing weekly internal reviews of the cases and posts on social media every Monday. Advocates say don't underestimate social media. It helped solve the missing case of Gabby Petito.
"I was a desperate mother and I had all the evidence and reasons why I knew something was wrong," said Nichole Schmidt, president of the Gabby Petito Foundation.
Her mother is advocating for a state task force on missing women and girls of color, cases that families say often get insufficient attention.
Joseph Petito, Gabby Petito's father and the vice president of the Gabby Petito Foundation, told CBS2 that the foundation is excited about the announcement. He hopes other police departments will follow suit, saying, "Every little bit helps to reunite missing persons with their loved ones faster."
Laura Mullen with ECLI-VIBES applauds Suffolk, which will also now follow up to address the underlying reason a person goes missing more than once.
"Whether it be substance use, whether it be mental health issues, whether it be home things that they've been through, trauma, vulnerabilities from a child, we are able to give them counseling here," Mullen said.
The family of this missing 12-year-old believes he may have been heading toward the Bronx. As part of the initiative, Suffolk will be working more proactively with the NYPD and other police agencies to track down missing persons.
According to the New York State Missing Persons Clearinghouse, 19,108 people were reported missing in the state last year and there were 2,964 open cases. So far in 2023 there have been 3,440 people reported missing, with the active number of open cases at 2,821.