Sheriff Javier Salazar said there is a need for a team dedicated solely to locating missing people.
BEXAR COUNTY, Texas — The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has launched a new missing persons unit. Sheriff Javier Salazar said there is a need for a team dedicated solely to locating missing people.
“I get a ping every single time we have a missing person’s case,” Salazar said. “On any given day we get from three to four, upwards from eight to ten, missing persons cases a day, and that’s just what the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office handles.”
Salazar said, based on what he sees, roughly 70% of those cases involve teenagers. He said that trend makes timely response especially critical.
The sheriff described how, until now, missing persons cases had to be pieced together using resources from other parts of the agency.
“What we would have to do is take resources from other areas of the agency to accomplish these tasks,” he said. “We would have one person assigned to the case as lead, but then they would pull resources, one person from homicide, one person from the gang unit.”
Sheriff Salazar said that wasn’t enough to meet the demands.
“We saw that it wasn’t sufficient to do the quality of work that we know these cases require,” he said.
The new unit, which is still in its early stages, consists of four people: two deputies, a lead detective and a civilian.
“It will be a great operation,” he said. “But yet again, I know if money were not an object, and we could somehow double the size of the unit, they would still be busy as can be.”
He emphasized that while some agencies may take a report and post a missing persons flyer, this team is actively out searching.
“Our goal is to look for these people and make sure that they are safe and sound and then reunite them with family,” he said.
Salazar added that time is especially crucial when it comes to missing teens.
“These teenagers, the longer they are gone from the house, the more chance that they stand of never being found again,” he said. “Many times these kids are approached by traffickers within just a few days.”