Are Hundreds Of Kids Disappearing In DC? Here's The Truth

WASHINGTON, DC — It started as a flurry of tweets from the Metropolitan Police Department, and now it's turned into a nationwide scandal: Hundreds of children have been reported missing in the D.C. area, prompting a frenzy of calls for action. But is something odd really happening in the District, or is it all a big misunderstanding?

The situation has certainly been a hot topic of conversation lately. The Congressional Black Caucus fired off a letter demanding that Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director James Comey look into the matter after alarming reports surfaced that there had already been 501 reports of missing juveniles in D.C. less than three months into 2017.

But the facts tell an entirely different story.

While it's true that there have been 501 reports of missing children, only 22 of them were still missing, and 13 were considered "critical," indicating concern for their well-being.

And 501 reports in a little less than three months is not unusual — in fact, it's somewhat low for the District, which had 2,242 such reports in all of last year, an average of 560.5 reports per quarter. In addition, that number was nearly 200 cases lower than 2015, indicating that missing child cases are actually on the decline in D.C.

There's also no reason to believe that more than 2,000 children go missing in D.C. every year. Teenagers frequently wander off somewhere without telling their parents, prompting worry that sometimes leads to multiple reports for teens who were never in danger. A small fraction of missing child reports turn out to be substantiated — 22 cases out of 501 is a little more than 4 percent.

So how did this hysteria start? It turns out that D.C. police, in an effort to be more transparent with the public and perhaps get more tips, started posting missing child reports on Twitter more often, but the move backfired: It caused many on social media to jump to the erroneous conclusion that children were going missing a lot more frequently for some nefarious reason. The hashtag "missingdcgirls" started to trend, and Twitter users flooded the social media platform to speculate that D.C. had a human trafficking problem. Trump supporters started to bring up the PizzaGate hoax again, accusing Hillary Clinton's staff of somehow being behind the spike.

Actress Taraji P. Henson, rapper LL Cool J and hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons are particularly responsible for helping spread worry over social media.

That's not to say that the missing children should be ignored, but D.C. is not enduring any sort of epidemic of kids disappearing.

Sad that there's been very little to no coverage on something like this, bring them home. #missingdcgirls pic.twitter.com/DL66xbUPCD
— M (@mariyahrosales_) March 24, 2017

Social media has impact. We have to continue to stay updated bc there hasn't been ANY national news coverage for these girls #missingdcgirls pic.twitter.com/CLkl7jKznb
— nañi (@pettyblackgirI) March 24, 2017

Please find these girls and bring them home safe. Every case can not be cold. Find answers! #missingdcgirls pic.twitter.com/UFgCUaBcur
— Ashley Peters (@Ashlanna7) March 24, 2017

Image via Metropolitan Police Department