Black Families Beg Cops to Take Action When Loved Ones Go Missing

MISSINGPERSONS: Rev. Robin Hood, left, and Louvenia Hood, executive director of Mothers Opposed to Violence Everywhere, talk to a member of their community outside the Greater Rock Missionary Baptist in Chicago. Photo by Sebastián Hidalgo for City Bureau By law, police can’t refuse any missing person report or ask people to wait before filing a report — but an investigation found they do. by& Trina Reynolds-Tyler, Invisible Institute, and Sarah Conway, City Bureau This story is part three of Chicago Missing Persons, a two-year investigation& by City Bureau and Invisible Institute, two Chicago-based nonprofit journalism organizations, into how Chicago police handle missing person cases reveals the disproportionate impact on Black women and girls, how police have mistreated family members or delayed cases, and how poor police data is making the problem harder to solve. Some say it’s simply a mother’s intuition: a lump in the throat or a throb to the heart that warns their child is in danger,& even when police suggest otherwise. It guided Latonya Moore when her 26-year-old daughter Shantieya Smith still wasn’t home as night fell on May 28, 2018. It was out of character for her to not reach out, especially on a school night....