The Missouri State Highway Patrol joined more than a 100 federal, state and local law-enforcement officers this week in a statewide effort to ensure the safety and well-being of Missouri’s foster children.
A news release says the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General and Office of Investigations-Kansas City Region led the investigation.
Operation H.O.P.E. (Helping Oppressed People Escape) is an initiative aimed at locating and recovering children missing from Missouri’s Foster Care Program. The operation resulted in successfully locating 23 program runaways from age 13 to 17.
Operation H.O.P.E. focused on the Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield metropolitan areas, and ultimately spanned across several Missouri counties. The goal of the officers was to ensure the safety of the foster children, while identifying and eliminating fraud and abuse occurring within Missouri’s Foster Care Program. As a direct result of this operation, five individuals were arrested and 23 additional investigations were generated, four of which are for human trafficking.
Several agencies and departments participated in this week’s operation:
Missouri State Highway Patrol;
Missouri Information and Analysis Center;
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, Office of Audit Services;
U.S. Department of Homeland Security – Homeland Security Investigations;
Federal Bureau of Investigations – St. Louis Field Office;
U.S. Marshals Service;
U.S. Attorney’s Office – Eastern District of Missouri;
U.S. Attorney’s Office – Western District of Missouri;
U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section;
Missouri Attorney General’s Office;
Missouri Department of Social Services, Children’s Division, Division of Legal Services, Office of Child Advocate, Division of Finance and Administrative Services;
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education;
Kansas City Police Department, Kansas City, Missouri;
Metropolitan Police Department, St. Louis, Missouri;
St. Louis County Police Department;
Webster Groves Police Department;
St. Louis City and County Juvenile Courts;
Springfield Police Department;
Greene County Sheriff’s Office;
Greene County Juvenile Services;
Mid-States Organized Crime Information Center;
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children;
Polaris Project – National Human Trafficking Hotline;
and National Runaway Safeline.