A 16-year-old boy has gone missing from Center City Philadelphia, last seen on the 1500 block of Arch Street on August 13, and police are now asking the public for help finding him. Caleb Buckson is described as 5 feet 7 inches tall and about 130 pounds, and investigators say his clothing at the time he vanished is not known.
According to the Newport Dispatch, the Philadelphia Police Department is seeking the public's help locating Buckson, who was reported missing out of the 9th Police District. The block where he was last seen sits directly at LOVE Park, or JFK Plaza, near City Hall and Suburban Station — one of the busiest transit and commercial corridors in Center City, according to Philachristmas.
A Four-Mile Gap Between Two Philadelphia Neighborhoods
Police also say Buckson is known to frequent the 3100 block of North Marston Street, a residential stretch in North Philadelphia's Allegheny West neighborhood, per property records reviewed by Zillow. That address sits roughly four miles north of the Center City block where he was last seen, leaving open questions about how — or whether — he moved between the two areas, on foot or by public transit. Investigators have not said whether surveillance footage from the Arch Street corridor has been reviewed.
The case falls under the Central Detective Division, which handles missing person investigations originating in the 9th Police District from headquarters at 401 N. 21st Street. The unit also oversees missing juvenile cases across the 6th and 22nd districts, and Buckson's disappearance comes amid other active searches the division is currently running, including that of 14-year-old Jesiah Broady, who went missing from North Philadelphia on August 6.
What Pennsylvania Law Requires of Police
Under Pennsylvania's Crimes Code, Title 18 Section 2908, law enforcement agencies are legally required to investigate a missing child report immediately, without any mandatory waiting period, and must log the juvenile into the Commonwealth Law Enforcement Assistance Network. Philadelphia Police Department Directive 12.13 goes further, requiring detective supervisors to ensure investigators re-interview the reporting party within 72 hours and maintain weekly contact with them for at least 30 days — a protocol Hoodline detailed in its coverage of a Germantown woman reported missing earlier this week.
Nationally, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children assisted with 29,568 missing child reports in 2024, and 91 percent of those children were recovered safely that year, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. More broadly, over 350,000 reports of missing youth are entered into the FBI's National Crime Information Center annually, with those under 18 making up roughly 31 percent of active missing person cases, per the National Child Identification Program.
Pattern of Missing Teen Alerts on Arch Street
The 1500 block of Arch Street has appeared in Philadelphia Police missing teenager bulletins before. Hoodline previously reported on the May 2025 disappearance of 17-year-old Shakur Anderson from the same 9th District block, and a separate missing teen report from June 2024 also centered on the 15xx block of Arch Street. Anyone with information about Caleb Buckson's whereabouts is urged to call 911, and the Central Detective Division can also be reached directly at 215-686-3093.
