What makes a good missing person message? Should it be the same content as an alert? Should it follow the structure of warning message? And if it differs, what's different and why?
Any public safety communicator who reads The Warn Room blogs will become familiar with the Warning Response Model and the contents and structure of a good message. You probably can also identify that a warning to alert a person to protect themselves from harm is not the same as a missing person alert, designed to alert the public to protect someone else from harm. And yet, in the Wireless Emergency Alert world, they share the same channel, and therefore occupy the same space in terms of public communication. In many cases, they share the same handling codes too - meaning that a missing person alert can be issued as an imminent threat alert even when the threat is to an individual and not to a community.
With more than 50 different types of missing person alerts in effect across the United States, and with evidence that states that issue missing person alerts have greater numbers of opt-outs within their states, it is our opinion that improving missing person alert messages should be a priority for all public safety communicators.
The message presented here represents an improvement in missing person alerts, and there is room for even more. We want to point out what's good and provide a suggestion or two in the revised message below.
This missing person message was issued as a Local Area Emergency in the evening hours on January 5. The message is 289 characters in length, leaving 70 characters for additional information. With some editing of duplicative words, there's even more space to add missing details.
The message includes a heading in all caps (MISSING ENDANGERED ADULT) with a description of the person (name, age, race, specific vulnerabilities - Dementia). It also provides the location the person was last seen and their mode of transportation (on foot in the Riverside area). There is a website for more information and a request that people call with information about the missing person. The message contains plain language, which is an improvement over many missing older adult messages that are simply described as "silver alert" and neglect to include additional actionable information.
However, in this message there is information missing that could help people to know what else they can do to be helpful. When we look at the additional content posted to the section of Warn.PBS we see a box called "INSTRUCTIONS EN" where there are specific instructions for how to help. Importantly, these instructions will only be seen by persons who have iphones; Androids and other devices will not display this information. In this case, the sender included instructions that contained the following information: "please check your backyards, carports, vehicles, and sheds and review surveillance video." These could be crucial details that highlight key locations for people to look or steps to take to assist in the recovery of the missing person.
We revised the original message to include the details that were provided in the instructions section of PBS.Warn and removed the duplicative information that didn't add to the message. Now, we see a complete message that includes the message source, a heading, a description of the missing person, the location last seen and the mode of transportation. We also provide actionable instructions and the link plus phone number for more information. We've highlighted key words in ALL CAPS. The total number of characters used in this revised message is 337.
My research team is currently conducting an experiment that will test how to write actionable missing persons messages, with the hope of unlocking some of the key features that are most necessary for motivating action, reducing frustration among message receivers, and leading to an engaged public. In the meantime, improvements to messages like these can help us to see how to better craft effective missing person alerts.
For more recommended contents, be sure to download The Warning Lexicon - it's free and offers step-by-step instructions on how to write a better warning message.
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