Overview
- The three-day task force, which concluded Thursday, located 34 children and teens who had been reported missing from Long Island and Queens.
- More than 100 staff from nearly 40 state, local and nonprofit agencies operated from a centralized command center in Garden City to review 70 cases and pursue new leads.
- The located youths, aged 7 to 18, were mostly runaways though officials said some showed signs of exploitation or trafficking and some had been missing for days to up to a decade.
- Investigators relied heavily on digital tools such as cellphone tracking and social media to find many children, using methods that can require legal steps like subpoenas for full access.
- Officials routed found children to tailored services including safe housing, medical care and counseling, while roughly 31 local cases remain open and state data show thousands of missing‑child reports in 2025.