Missing Persons Day (34/365) | Commission on Map Design

On a serious note: it’s National Missing Persons Day.

The United States has a serious problem. People go missing… a lot. And they are often never found. Complicating matters, the FBI reports on national missing persons statistics, but it doesn’t report state-by-state.

Many states create annual reports of missing persons, but they use different statistics and standards. Some differentiate between minors and adults. Others do not.

I asked Dataset Doctor GPT to scour the web for all state reports it could find and create a (semi-) comprehensive state-by-state dataset. It took a while… but after checking in on it a few times, it finally assured me it found all that it could. (I had it search in batches.)

I then asked my other handy GPT agent, Web Mapper GPT, to map the data.

Missing persons reports by state View Map

Tools Used

Dataset Doctor GPT Prompt

Hi, for national missing persons day, I would like to create a state-by-state dataset of missing person reports. I’ve heard the FBI has a lot of records and there are other public records. The map the dataset will be used for will primarily be designed to build awareness about missing persons and have a rhetorical / empathetic affect, not data exploration or analysis. I envision having statistics such as adults versus juveniles missing, as well as a filter that allows people to view state totals compared to one another using proportional symbols: either adults only, juveniles only, or totals. My ask from you: can you search the web for good sources where I can download or scrape together such a dataset, please? If there is a dataset available, please create a geojson with geometry or shapefile. Clean the dataset to show only State Name, Data Source, relevant counts to my needs, percentages, and any other relevant information to missing persons (e.g., year). The more recent the dataset the better, but anything within the past few years is fine. Thank you! Please report back with existing datasets you have found or places where you think you or I may be able to piecemeal together a dataset to help make this map. I’ll give further instructions from there. Much appreciated!

Web Mapper GPT Prompt

Hi there, I would like to make a national map of missing persons. I have a schema, dataset, and a text file of things to consider and a title for the map. can you help create this for me? Note: it should be mobile first. It should all fit within the window of a mobile device or desktop. The design layout should adapt appropriately depending on the device being used to view the map: e.g., bottom pane info windows for mobile, pop-up mobile windows on desktop, etc. I would love for each state to be symbolized by a donut chart. The donut chart should be proporionately sized by radius on the total number of missing people reported. Then, the donut chart itself should show Juvenile (or up to 18 year olds) missing and Adults 18 and older missing (or similar). There can be an other category too if that is required in some cases. States without data should be represented by a circle symbol that appears like a hole through the base map (e.g., a white background in the middle. A punched hole effect in the basemap. When a user hovers or clicks on the hole, a note about not all states report missinng persons data, and a comment about how missing data means they cannot be found, etc. (See schema and attached notes). Please project the United States using Albers Equal Area or Lambert Conformal if possible. Include Alaska and Hawaii if they have data. If they don’t, exclude both from the map. Thank you.