Pushing Past Obstacles to Find Missing Black Women

By Trina Reynolds-Tyler, Invisible Institute, and Sarah Conway, City Bureau While the mishandling of missing person cases has been an ongoing problem for Chicago police, there is momentum — at the state, city, and community level — for solutions that could bring real change. This story is part six 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. Illinois Task Force The Illinois Task Force on Missing and Murdered Chicago Women convened for the first time on May 25, 2023. It has a sprawling scope that includes examining policies and institutions like police and child welfare programs, improving data collection and analysis, and providing support for impacted people, families, and communities. This body aims to ultimately reduce violence against Chicago women and girls by examining root causes and current response mechanisms. “We’re just looking for information and patterns [to] see if we can put together a profile and save lives,” says state Sen....