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DC Police Responds To Outcry Following Reports Of Missing Black Girls

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WJZ) -- The number of missing young people in Washington, D.C., in particular, black girls, has people across the country outraged. Many think not enough is being done to find those missing.

Recently, the D.C. Police Department responded to concern.

"Any child gone missing it should be known that there is a possibility that this child could be hurt!"

Police in Washington D.C. are rushing to contain a crisis of fear, after a new policy of publicizing missing young people, set off a panic.

More than 500 children and teens have gone missing in the nation's capital in 2017.

But, D.C. Police say, this number is actually lower than in years past, and there is no new evidence of kidnapping or human trafficking. Police believe most are runaways.

"Need to be aware of, is that we do have that many kids that go missing in our city, and it's been that way for a long time," says Acting D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham.

At a town hall this week, Acting Police Chief Newsham said the department is trying to draw new attention to an old problem.

"One person missing is one person too many, especially when you're talking about our young people," says Commander Channel Dickerson, head of the department's Youth Services Division.

It was in hopes of finding more missing minors, that she recently instructed the D.C. metro twitter account to share every case deemed "critical."

But the sight of lost children on the account, including at least a half dozen black teen girls, shocked the D.C. community and surged through social media, spread by celebrities and the hashtag #missingdcgirls.

In response, D.C.'s  Mayor launched an effort to address the problem, including assigning more officers to each case as well as expanding programs aimed at runaways.

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