Proposal would create statewide Ebony Alert for missing Black women and girls

WORCESTER ― Their faces smile out of posts on the Worcester Police Department's official Facebook page. Many of the photos are selfies taken to capture a moment of pride, joy or security in their lives.

But their inclusion on the official page is usually an indication something's wrong. They have been reported missing, away from supervision and care, and vulnerable.

Recognizing the power of social media, the department has been using its official Facebook page for several years to alert the public that someone has been reported missing — teenagers and young adults, older adults suffering from dementia, and residents who may be developmentally delayed.

Alerts posted at request of parents, guardians

It's not an automatic posting, said Lt. Sean Murtha, a department spokesman. The decision to post the information and an image is up to the parent or guardian. Sometimes the guardians request discretion, other times they allow the posting, especially if the person’s behavior is out of character.

“Say a 16-year-old girl has a fight with their mother, slams out of the house and goes to her boyfriend’s house,” Murtha said, describing a hypothetical situation similar to many police have investigated.

The parent may report the child missing, Murtha said, and ask police to return her home if they spot her but not to publicize the situation on Facebook, fearing that would stigmatize the girl further. As time passes, parents may become more comfortable with a public posting.

“The girl could be at a friend’s house and the parent there has no idea she’s been reported missing and that her family is worried about her,” Murtha said.

The posts help alert the general public and people in the missing person’s circle of relatives, friends and acquaintances to their circumstances. These are widely read, commented on and shared in the Facebook community. People offer prayers for a safe return, alert others to possible sightings and express relief when they learn the person has been found.

Some posts are shared on websites, such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Sometime the situations resolve, children return to care, wandering and confused adults are found and returned to safe situations.

But sometimes they don’t.

Children missing vulnerable to predators, traffickers

“While children are missing from care, it makes them vulnerable to predators,” said Audrey Morrissey, co-executive director of My Life My Choice, a Boston-based organization that provides supports for people who have been trafficked for sexual purposes. The organization serves youths and young adults in Eastern Massachusetts, reaching as far west as Worcester. It helps them to exit from situations, supports them as they transition, and advocates for changes to laws that criminalize victims of the sex trade.

The group recently spoke in support of two bills filed by legislators designed to address aspects of sexual trafficking.

One bill, sponsored by Rep. Thomas Walsh, D-Peabody, and Sen. Joan Lovely, D-Salem, would require that hospitality workers and staff at hotels and motels be trained to recognize the signs of sexual trafficking and how to establish a policy for reporting the crime if it occurs in their establishment.

The other bill, sponsored by Reps. Bud Williams, D-Springfield, and Chynah Tyler, D-Boston, would create a special Ebony Alert to notify the public of missing Black women and girls. It would also create a databank to collect information on the race of women and children reported missing and murdered.

California last year became the first state in the country to establish such a system.

“We know the age and gender of those reported missing, but we don’t collect information on their race,” said Seble Alemu, a researcher on the Joint Committee on Racial Equity, Civil Rights and Inclusion, chaired by Williams. “We want to separate out that information in order to offer practical legislative recommendations for addressing the issue.”

In announcing a recent hearing, Alemu pointed out that 214,582 persons of color were reported missing nationwide in 2022; of those, 153,374 were minors. The disturbing link between human trafficking and the disappearance of Black women and girls demands our collective urgent action, she said.

My Life My Choice is a 22-year-old program that says it has supported more than 220 youngsters between 12 and 20 to escape from sexual exploitation. In its research, the organization has found the average age of first exploitation is 13, and 88% are involved with the state Department of Children and Families. Many identify as people of color or members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“What puts a young person at risk for exploitation is their removal from their families for whatever reason — substance use issues, mental health problems, abandonment,” Morrissey said. Humans, she said, want to feel as if they belong somewhere and are part of a family. Once removed from a family situation, they can feel unworthy and unlovable.

“They are all looking for love, unconditional love,” Morrissey said of the youngsters her organization supports. Poverty is also a factor, she said, explaining that low-income Black and brown girls are disproportionally exploited by predators.

“Not having things also makes young people vulnerable to exploitation, being promised a cellphone, new outfits,” Morrissey said. “We all want to fit in, be accepted on a social level.”

Ebony Alert would be similar to AMBER Alert

The Ebony Alert system envisioned in the bill would be similar to the nationwide AMBER Alert, which began in 1996, and was named after Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old who was kidnapped while riding her bike in Arlington, Texas, and later murdered.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice website, which administers the program, 1,186 children were successfully recovered through the AMBER Alert system as of Dec. 31, 2023. Another 165 children were rescued because of wireless emergency alerts. There are 82 AMBER Alert plans throughout the United States.

“Black and brown children are overlooked all the time,” Morrissey said. “White children have families with the ability to attract media attention. Black and brown families do not attract that kind of attention.”

Morrissey remembers an interaction with an upper-middle-class white family: The teenage girl had gone missing from the local public library where her mother would pick her up after school. After the family reported her missing, local police downplayed the report, theorizing the 17-year-old was “just hanging out.”

“But the girl was known to talk to adult men online,” Morrissey said, adding that the family was connected with the police chief of a neighboring community. They pressured that connection and police became more involved.

“The teenager was found in Rhode Island, spotted by a kid riding a bike,” Morrissey said, adding that the girl was hand-in-hand with an inappropriate adult.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Facebook; tool for Worcester PD to publicize, find missing people