By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS 

Tribune Staff Reporter 

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

POLICE Commissioner Shanta Knowles said rebelliousness is the key factor behind recent cases of runaway children.

“There’s one particular young girl who just did not want to wash dishes, and because of her being scolded, she left home, she ran away,” she said. “We encourage parents to stay strong, to continue to be parents first, but of course, to work with their children to see how best we can get them on the right track.”

Some runaways, she said, “don’t want to listen to their parents, and that is the message that we must get across to our children”.

Speaking on The Rundown, a ZNS talk show with Clint Watson on Monday night, she said technology is helping officials find children.

“When we find or locate these young people, especially those who run away, we realise that there are issues within the home, and it is at that point that we get social services involved or another agency that can offer counselling to the family members to see how best they can resolve their issues in their home before these, especially young girls go missing again,” she said.

The Royal Bahamas Police Force investigated 277 cases of missing persons nationwide in 2024. Of these, 256 cases were solved, with the individuals found safe, while 21 remain under investigation. Among these cases, 28 percent were classified as runaways, 41 percent were due to miscommunication, 16 percent involved individuals with mental illness, six percent remain unknown, three percent involved persons who were arrested, four percent were lost at sea, and two percent were deceased.

There were 188 cases in New Providence, 48 in Grand Bahama, and 24 in the Family Islands. The missing persons included 78 percent Bahamians, eight percent Haitians, one percent Americans, one percent Jamaicans, and 11 percent with unknown nationalities.