On Thursday (May 30), the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office notified the public of the status of its Operation Safe Summer (OSS). The initiative, which took place from May 1-24, located and rescued “231 missing and/or exploited children” in the metro area, FOX 5 News reports.
In a statement, Special Agent in charge of FBI Atlanta, Chris Hacker spoke on the operation’s feat. “Thanks to the month-long efforts of our partners, 231 children are no longer vulnerable to predators who would seek to exploit them,” Hacker said. “Operation Safe Summer is another example of the FBI’s commitment to protecting our children before they become victims.”
The National Center for Missing Exploited Children (NCMEC) found that in 2018, over the 23,500 runaways reported to the organization, one in seven were assumed to be child sex trafficking victims. A report published by the FBI also notes that in March 2019, an estimate of “419 missing/runaway children on the streets of the five-county Metro Atlanta region” were cataloged.
Recently, CNN published a report on the city’s re-examining of evidence concerning the unsolved murders of children in Atlanta in the late ’70s into the early ’80s. Backed by new technological advances, the decision seeks to provide closure for families. The revamped investigation will also take into account convicted murderer Wayne Williams, who’s serving life for multiple murders.
