Sarnia police say they're duty-bound to treat each missing person case the same, regardless of how many times an individual has gone missing.
There's been a number of missing person reports circulated through the media and online recently, with some involving chronic runaways.
Police, for example, have issued alerts for an 11-year-old Sarnia girl six times this month alone and twice for a 14-year-old Sarnia boy.
Cst. John Sottosanti said they have to take each missing person report very seriously.
"If we don't say something and then all of a sudden we don't find her, or we could have found her sooner," said Sottosanti. "What do you do then, everybody is wearing egg on their face and it's not a good situation."
Cst. Sottosanti said you can't put habitual runaways in custody.
He said each child has his or her own problems that have to be worked out, but he concedes there are limited community resources.