Tech Note: Chicago Missing Persons
Chicago Missing Persons: The Data Series
Invisible Institute and the Human Rights Data Analysis Group have collaborated on analyzing missing persons cases since 2019 – initially scraping and analyzing open missing persons cases from 2000 – 2016 received through public records requests.
Through Beneath the Surface, a project that uses machine learning to parse through narrative text of police misconduct records, our team was able to identify over 50 complaints related to missing persons cases. Alleged misconduct ranged from officers denying reports all the way to an officer closing a case before finding the young person. Our team then embarked on a deep dive into Chicago Police Missing Persons Data and the legislation which influenced the data systems where these cases live; analyzing every digital case record from 2000-2022 prepared and provided by the Chicago Police Department. We partnered with City Bureau in 2021 on the investigation.
Why does it matter?
Before digging into the technical details about the policy and data related to missing persons reports in Chicago, it behooves us to tell you why we think you should care about the questions we can’t answer and what it could mean for the people in Chicago.
Crime Prevention Initiatives
Meaningful crime prevention begins at the root of crime and with identifying those who are most vulnerable to becoming a victim or offender themself. Those who are in unsafe situations, who are experiencing a mental health crisis, trauma, or violence, are especially vulnerable to crime and may rely on effective community support to find secure housing that is physically and emotionally safe, financial stability, and opportunities for growth that can provide strong alternatives to and safety from crime.
Crime prevention initiatives often use police data to support and guide policy. The city contracts the police department as the primary contact agency for most types of emergencies and dispatches officers through 911 call centers where calls for assistance are received. Both the call center and police keep some data on the requested and provided support from their agency. Later, when city leaders have questions about what the community needs and what issues are the most prevalent, each agency and their data will be consulted. When that information is then used to make a data-driven argument and affect policy, new public safety initiatives are built on the significance of the data and findings. However, as with all statistics and scientific findings, the strength of the findings relies on the strength of the data collection and methodology – details which may not be accessible to all stakeholders in the matter.
For example, when communities report non-arrival of police even when calling about gunshots, it’s useful to think about the data generation process and how something like non-arrival would present itself in data. Additionally, what would you need to have certainty that arrival did occur, besides the word of those whose job it was to show up?
Read the data notebooks here: Chicago Missing Persons: The Data Series overview | Chapter 1: What is a missing person event?