Most of the Missing Person messages sent through Wireless Emergency Alerts are incomplete and lack key details for message receivers. They most frequently include a headline and a link to more information, relying on the individual receiver to be motivated enough to click the link and look for more information if they don't swipe the message off the screen first. Honestly, its a dangerous practice to send incomplete alerts. They lack the detail necessary for action and in the case of a missing child or other vulnerable missing person whose lives are at risk, it clearly misses the mark. (Keep reading to see what a complete message looks like at the bottom of the page...)
In the early morning hours of Tuesday, November 26, a community in Florida received this incomplete alert. It includes the headline (missing child), a location (Deltona Area and Surrounding), and a link to a poster.
Out of curiosity, we did a little search on the internet for news about the situation. Clearly, there had to be more to the story and to the message about the child. There was; but it was not included in the message or the poster. I learned that Charlie is a nonverbal Autistic child -- these are clues to describing his additional vulnerabilities and may help to identify him. He is also attracted to Christmas lights and water, plus he has been known to climb trees -- these are clues about where to look for him. Also, he was headed north and had been gone for nearly 12 hours -- direction of travel and time he went missing should provide clues to how far he might have walked. You can read about these additional details in this news report here.
Researchers have been working on ways to improve missing person alerts. We have studied the contents and style of messages sent through WEA and we have consulted with experts associated with the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (the people who run the AMBER alert program). What we've learned is that missing person alerts do not differ that much from your general alert or warning; in fact, they should follow the SAME workflow and include similar contents. By drawing from DOJ recommendations and linking them to the Warning Response Model, we see that the main differences are in the descriptions of the victim, suspect, and transportation modes. Here are the recommendations:
SOURCE - the name of the message sender
HAZARD - replace with EVENT TYPE - Missing child/adult or KIDNAPPED child (in the case of an AMBER type alert). Note that this is a generic approach to naming the event type, there are no jargon terms here such as Silver, Gold, Feather, Ashanti, etc.
HAZARD IMPACT - replace with DESCRIPTIVE INFORMATION about the victim first and any specific vulnerabilities, such as autism or being nonverbal. If there is a suspect, include a description of that person as well, plus the vehicle, if there is one. Do not use acronyms or abbreviations (eg. write out single white female instead of SWF)
LOCATION - where was the person last seen and/or which direction are they traveling and how.
TIME - when was the person last seen
GUIDANCE - what do you want people to do? Do you want them to help look for the child? Do you want them to just be aware and to call 911 if they see the child?
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION - provide a url with a picture and any additional details
If you've been wondering what to do with that "information" category that shows up as additional characters in an Android phone... this is where you can add details about the victim that you couldn't fit into the message.
This is what a complete message looks like when you include the details just described. With a little more editing, this message can be made shorter with room for the complete link that was included in the original message. But, I hope the reader can agree that THIS message is much more actionable for the message receiver.
We'll be updating the Warning Lexicon with contents and workflow for Missing Persons in the near future. It the meantime, bookmark this page so that you can come back to it when you need to write an actionable missing person message.
If your organization is developing alert and warning messages for ANY type of hazard, be sure to take a look at the resources available to help you and your organization to write effective messages in a pinch. Bookmark and download The Warning Lexicon - it's free and offers step-by-step instructions on how to write a better warning messages for 48 hazards.
________________________________________________________________________
Feel free to post this on your social media site, just remember to attribute it to The Warn Room and include the web address: TheWarnRoom.com - Thank you!
You may click on the keywords below to find other entries with similar topics.
Comments