In contrast, White people account for 54% of missing person reports and 75% of the US population. “I did a deep dive into it,” Petito told CNN.

In 2022, up to 546,000 people were reported missing across the U.S. — with 36% of those cases identified as Black youth and women.

The Ebony Alert system — which will be used for Black people aged 12 to 25 — takes effect in California on Jan. 1, 2024, when it will become the first statewide program of its kind in the country.

More than 546,000 people were reported missing in 2022, including more than 271,000 women, the data shows. Nearly 98,000 of those cases were Black women and girls.

A 2022 report from Minnesota’s Missing and Murdered African American Women Task Force found that cases for Black women and girls stay open four times longer than cases involving their white peers.

Black women and girls make up 7% of Minnesota's population but are 40% of domestic violence victims. They are three times as likely to be murdered as their white counterparts.