D.C. police are using social media to shed light on people missing from D.C. As of March 29, the District has 15 open missing juvenile cases. Shown above are the photos of teens who are considered "critically missing."
The teens featured on the map were all reported missing in 2017 and remain missing. The map includes their photos, their ages and the dates and locations where they were last seen.
Acting Police Chief Peter Newsham said the year-over-year number of missing persons, including juveniles, has held steady, and that there is no known link in D.C. now between missing people and human trafficking.
"We've just been posting them on social media more often," said Metropolitan Police spokeswoman Rachel Reid.
But the increased social media attention has caused concern in the U.S. capital area, which has long had a large minority population and is currently about 48 percent black.
According to local police data, the number of missing child cases in the District dropped from 2,433 in 2015 to 2,242 in 2016. The highest total recently, 2,610, was back in 2001.
