"Despite more than 1,000 people being reported missing every year, according to Puerto Rico police statistics, the agency did not provide complete data on all cases to the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI). As a result, the organization filed a mandamus petition against the police on Monday (April 20) before the Court of First Instance in San Juan.
Last November, CPI journalists Jeniffer Wiscovitch Padilla and Omaya Sosa Pascual requested from police a list of missing persons in Puerto Rico from 2014 to 2025, including names, town of residence, last known location, date, sex and age. Two months after the initial request, the Missing Persons Division told the journalists it could not produce a list or database because the information was neither organized nor archived in that format, and instead provided only some bulletins sent to the press.
'This is a case involving an issue of great public interest for which state-produced information is not available: missing persons. How can we analyze where people disappear most, their sex, the circumstances, or how many are found, if we don’t have access to the data?' said CPI Executive Director Carla Minet."
