Elizabeth Smart, Jaycee Dugard and Amanda Berry all share something in common: they were held captive by predators and were victims of rape and abuse in kidnapping incidents for far too many years in the U.S.

Nearly 350,000 abductions occur in the U.S. each year according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Crime Information Center. If these statistics hold true, then the U.S. police departments are not enforcing enough laws to prevent further kidnappings and to locate missing persons. The FBI is permitted to work on a kidnap case after 24 hours. However, very often, leads in kidnapping cases go cold after a few short hours, leaving the victim in grave danger.

An incident that upset many Americans was the discovery that the abductions of Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, all of whom were taken about 10 years ago, were related. Ariel Castro had kidnapped all three, held them in deplorable conditions in his home and sexually abused them.

Despite reportedly receiving many phone calls, the Cleveland police department only made one attempt to go to Castro’s house and left after a few minutes of knocking on the door. Since he lived in a lower-income neighborhood, many are questioning whether the police did not take reports seriously in the area. Would they have responded better if it had been a higher-income neighborhood?

Police had dismissed the case as teenagers who just took off, even though they had been in the heart of the neighborhood the entire time. Cases involving people of color and lower incomes do not get the same law enforcement resources as others, as well as people who are involved with drugs and alcohol.

Another incident occurred where victims’ relatives said police did not take their missing-person reports seriously since the victims were drug addicts, alcoholics, had criminal records or mental health problems, after the bodies of 11 women were found in Anthony Sowell’s Cleveland home. One of Sowell’s victims who survived an attack testified that police did not believe her when she reported the assault. Sowell was released from jail without charges after the woman’s report. It seems as though police tend to dismiss cases involving lower-income people.

Jaycee Dugard was another victim of a kidnapping that received little police attention. Her captor was a registered sex offender and social workers had entered his house many times to check up on him, yet failed to notice the giant tent in his backyard where Dugard was living. Had his home been searched thoroughly, Dugard could have been discovered years earlier.

As shown by these unnecessarily lengthy incidents, there is a flaw in the police system. The reason for the high crime rates in lower-income neighborhoods are directly due to the police’s failure to enact enforcement and search these areas well. For instance, Cleveland, Ohio, the location of the Castro and Sowell kidnappings is one of the most unsafe places in the United States and has 30,981 crimes annually according to NeighborhoodScout.com.

These abductions have altered the lives of these young women forever, many of whom have set up organizations and funds to increase awareness of missing persons. Police forces around the country must do a better job in chasing down leads and following tips, since the psychological, emotional and physical well-being of young people is at stake.