The United States Marshals Service (USMS) has had an outstanding history of missing child recovery and that is why the recent slaying of 19-year-old Dayanna Torres can aptly be described as the most successful missing child recovery mission in the history of the agency when a powerful multi-agency task force from several counties in Florida came out and managed to find her dead body after having being beaten up. The project, dubbed Operation Dragon-Eye, led to successful recovery of 60 missing children with severe cases in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco Counties.
This 2-week-long operation was an outcome of the cooperation of the USMS and several other federal, state and local agencies. The operation, according to United States Marshal William Berger of the Middle District of Florida, was notable due to follow up and care given to the children involved in the operation. The exceptional thing about this operation was that not only were under-age critically missing children, 9- 17 year old reported back but they were also debriefed and received both physical and psychological health care, Berger noted. This was accompanied with follow up services to help in ensuring their long term safety.
The USMS describes the youth who are critically missing as more vulnerable to factors like violence exposure, affliction, drugs use, or unsafe conditions. The operation dragon-eye was not only recovery oriented, but also made an effort to provide the kids found with access to support services as well as safe homes.
Mario Price, Deputy in Charge with the U.S. Marshals Service, said, that this was not merely a Marshals operation, but a community effort. He stressed that the operation had three main purposes finding critically missing children, giving support services, and also preventing further damages by searching for people who may seek to prey on the vulnerable children.
Eight arrests accompanied the operation and people were facing hard charges connected with it. Marshal Berger states that these instances were with adults who had knowledge in the age of the children. He pointed out that some of them were seen with more than one child under their care which is very worrying. The crimes include endangerment, illegal possession and others.
Some of the agencies involved included the St. Petersburg Police Department which indicated an eleven juvenile recovery, two arrests one of which was a severe offense. Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercow said, in this operation, they got a good understanding of the importance of teamwork in the area of public safety. These are the results of how committed we are in ensuring the safety of the weakest in our society.
Well-organized and sustained success through Operation Dragon-Eye illustrates how collaborative efforts to rescue children are put to good use not just to rescue, but to afford a chance to recover and flourish. The posts are presently pursuing the recovery of the recovered people to see to it that they are safe and well in future.