Police do their best with the resources they have, but unfortunately most law enforcement agencies are simply not equipped to deal with rising crime rates AND searching for missing persons. Police will only begin looking for a missing child after a specific amount of time has passed since the child was last seen. If the child has been kidnapped by a pedophile or child killer, it may be too late. Police are also reluctant, due to thinning resources, to search for people who voluntarily left home or for those who live on the streets. Even in a police-led missing person search, they will stop looking after a certain amount of time and will declare it e a cold case.