1,000 children reported missing in Ohio this year alone

turning now to Ohio where there are some very concerning statistics that are scaring a lot of people out there officials say so far this year a thousand kids have been reported missing almost 50 kids have gone missing in Cleveland this month alone and those numbers have some police officials saying yes it is that bad While others are saying yeah but a lot of these are likely runaways who do get found take a quick listen my 33 years in law enforcement this is seems like an unusually high number s

ummer months a lot of kids get antsy they have lack of supervision at home and they want to be out with their friends and you know go out into the streets and and enjoy themselves in the summer and Shaquille Brewster joins us now Shaquille what is going on in Cleveland if I was a parent there I would be stressing like crazy singing headline like that yeah got it you know I've been having conversations with officials in the Greater Cleveland area and they're saying there's not one particular Fact

or here there's a couple of different contributing factors to these numbers one you think September uh this is the return to school so that is playing a part in this we know the warmer weather in the summer that is also playing a part the big thing and the big trends that you're seeing here is that the vast majority of these cases involve people who are leaving intentionally kids who are running away essentially and officials there also say that the vast majority are found and returned to their

parents but I talked to the president of a group that provides support to families with missing kids and I asked him about this trend specifically that headline that you read that 45 missing people in the Greater Cleveland area just in the month of September listen to a little bit of what he told me we don't want to send out some escaping alarm that there's like a Serial abductor out there or things our kids are just Vanishing off the streets you know it's safe to say that the vast majorities ar

e in fact runaways but that's still a concern because these children are young and you know they think that they know everything but they don't he says one thing to be clear about here is that despite these kids leaving intentionally and running away that then makes them susceptible to Predators out there so this is still a serious issue he's saying and one way to help Solve It Is by staying alert staying alert to those uh wanted posters or the missing uh posters that are out there in the pictur

es of these kids that are sent out when they go missing but he's saying it's a lot of factors that play into this rise in missing kids in the Greater Cleveland area Gotti it was such a good reminder and speaking of one of those kids there are cases where kids have been missing for months there's a 15 year old uh Keyshawn Williams who's been missing for three months there what is being done to find kids like him yeah and you know that's the exact kind of poster I was talking about Keyshawn he uh

went missing after going to a house party back in June June 17th he was reported missing on June 20th his family is renewing their fight to help recover him police are investigating this as a possible abduction but as recently as just about a week ago you saw his family canvassing the neighborhood passing out that flyer to individuals telling people to be alert to see if they see him anywhere that's just one of the things that you're starting to see and you know in that conversation I had with t

he president of that missing persons group he said that it's all about the public this is not something that police and members of law enforcement can solve on their own it's about people calling in being alert sending in those tips when they find people or when they think they might even suspect uh seeing a missing child you see the page there that's from the Ohio Attorney General's office so take a look at that there are a lot of missing kids and a lot of people who want to be reunited with th

eir uh families yeah so sobering to see all those names listed there our thoughts are with Sean's family hopefully he he's home soon Jack Brewster thanks so much you got him thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media