CLEVELAND (WJW) – According to Newburgh Heights Police Chief John Majoy, local law enforcement is seeing an uptick in missing children.

“Back in the late spring, we saw an uptick in the number of missing children cases. Now we are seeing a second wave of an uptick in missing children. We can attribute it to kids being back in school, the weather is still decent,” said Majoy.

Right now, the Ohio attorney general’s “Missing Children” website has more than 45 children listed as missing in Northeast Ohio in the month of September.

In August, there were 35.

“We also have to remember that a good majority of cases are runaways. It doesn’t minimize the urgency because they are putting themselves in danger, but they aren’t abductions,” said Majoy.

Majoy is also president of Cleveland Missing, a local nonprofit.

“I don’t want them to put Cleveland in a light that we have all these vanishing children because it’s not quite the case. Do we have an uptick? Yes. Is there concern? Of course, but at the same token, law enforcement is doing their due diligence,” said Majoy.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost acknowledged the problem, as well as the work of local law enforcement Wednesday.

“We know that law enforcement recovers 90% of the children that go missing. With that being said, one kid missing is one kid too many. BCI offers assistance to law enforcement to help in the effort to safely return children home,” said Yost in a statement.

Majoy added that the public can be law enforcement’s greatest asset.

Cleveland police add that in 2022, detectives solved 99% of all missing person cases received. So far this year, 94% of all cases have been solved.