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Runaway cases on rise this year in Gainesville, Hall
Reasons for increase vary, hard for investigators to pin down
1115RUNAWAY
Gainesville Police Investigator Stephen Johnson looks over reports at his desks. Johnson has been assigned as the juvenile investigator for the department for roughly two years.
The number of child runaways reported this year to the Gainesville Police Department has outnumbered all missing person reports made the previous two years. “Mondays and Tuesdays are kind of the days that my runaway reports tend to come in,” said Gainesville Police Investigator Stephen Johnson, who has been the juvenile investigator for the department for roughly two years. The number, Johnson and Sgt. Kevin Holbrook said, has partly to do with the number of repeat offenders.