Florida officials said law enforcement agencies across the state worked together on a five-day operation to find more than 160 missing children.
On Wednesday, Aug. 25, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that the state’s Operation Statewide Shield had resulted in 163 children, between the ages of two months and 17 years old, being recovered in what was described as the “first statewide child recovery initiative and the largest operation of its kind in Florida history.”
Law enforcement agents involved in the operation aimed to identify, locate and recover the missing children using information from intelligence and field operations before providing them with “immediate access to child-focused services.”
“Many of these kids have been victimized by those who prey on the most vulnerable,” Uthmeier said in a press release. “Thanks to the outstanding work of Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Office of Statewide Prosecution, and our state and local partners, these children are now safe and receiving the care they deserve.”
Because it’s a BS announcement trying to repair Florida police reputation after their failure to keep kids safe from the Epstein class (most victims were from Florida)
Most of these kids were never in any peril. They were with parents who did not have custody when they were recovered 163 kids were recovered in an international coordinated effort yet Florida law enforcement is using this as a PR move to make it seem like they were the heroes.
FUN FACT: “Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier stated that the cases varied significantly on an individual basis, including runaway children, family custody disputes, foster care situations, CPS cases of abuse, abandonment, and neglect, and human trafficking.”
To be clear helping kids/teens in any of those situations is GOOD and should always be a priority for law enforcement and state/local officials. But…
Officials/Law Enforcement will roll all of this together into “an operation” specifically because it will get headlines even if 90% of the “recovered” kids were not even in any peril.
The reality is generally mostly:
Dozens to hundreds of cases that are completely unrelated
Runaway children (mostly teens) who are located
Family custody disputes where a parent refuses to relinquish custody or moves without telling the other parent/family
Kids who get “lost” in the Foster care system (literal paper work issues)
CPS cases (domestic abuse, abandonment, neglect…) that get elevated to Law Enforcement
Human Trafficking “light” - teens who “willingly” engage in prostitution
Truly heinous Human Trafficking/Sex Abuse/etc
Online/Digital child-porn victims
Anyway these news websites will take this PR brief from the police as gospel instead of actual getting the facts, which is 3 individuals were arrested in Florida related to this operation but still no details on what the charges are. Very vague reporting on an operation involving 12 countries and 6 states which Florida just happened to be a part of