Reporters Sarah Conway and Trina Reynolds-Tyler honored by the Pulitzer Prize Board on Monday afternoon
By City Bureau
Trina Reynolds-Tyler and Sarah Conway (Photo: Felton Kizer /Chicago Reader)
We are incredibly proud to share that City Bureau Senior Reporter Sarah Conway and Invisible Institute Data Director Trina Reynolds-Tyler have won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for their investigation “Missing in Chicago.”
“Missing in Chicago” is a seven-part investigative series that reveals how Chicago police have routinely violated state law and police procedure, delaying and mishandling missing person cases. The report revealed a racial bias that disproportionately impacts Black women and girls, and how poor police data is making the problem harder to solve.
“Sarah and Trina deserve this recognition for many reasons. The rigor, care and thoughtfulness that they put into this investigation shine through within each piece, and I couldn't be more proud of their commitment,” said City Bureau Executive Director Morgan Malone. “‘Missing in Chicago’ serves as proof that investigative reporting with engagement and community in mind are a necessity, versus a ‘nice to have.’
“When our reporting is informed by the lived experiences and needs of community, the potential for impact is boundless. I look forward to the change brewing in Chicago and Illinois, due in large part to their incredible reporting, and in the journalism industry at large, as this Pulitzer is proof that investigative journalism driven by community is alive, well and a catalyst for the world we know to be possible.”
ABOUT THE SERIES
City Bureau and the Invisible Institute partnered in the reporting and development of the two-year investigation “Missing in Chicago” in 2021. City Bureau Senior Reporter Sarah Conway and Invisible Institute Data Director Trina Reynolds-Tyler collaborated using an innovative blend of data science and a machine-learning model to ultimately analyze over 1 million police records.
They paired this analysis with community engagement and investigative journalism techniques, interviewing more than 40 sources, hosting community events and pinpointing significant discrepancies in official police data that revealed systemic patterns of mismanagement in the Chicago Police Department’s handling of missing person cases.
“It’s an honor to receive this recognition,” said City Bureau Senior Reporter Sarah Conway. “It’s also a signal to families whose loved ones have gone missing — who have felt neglected by the system — that their experiences matter. We’re grateful for the opportunity to shed light on this story and amplify the voices of those most affected.”
This multidisciplinary reporting led to the discovery of four cases where detectives explicitly noted that the missing person had returned home despite family members saying their loved ones had not. In two of these instances, reporters found these cases by searching for murder charges and news stories and cross-referencing the names of the missing. Their technique also led to identifying 11 cases that ended in homicide that were marked “non-criminal” in the data, more than doubling the number of official homicides in missing persons police data.
City Bureau and the Invisible Institute also collaborated in publishing the seven-part Missing in Chicago series on chicagomissingpersons.com, with excerpts tailored for local readership and reach appearing in the Chicago Reader, South Side Weekly, The Triibe and Word in Black News syndication.
SERIES OUTCOMES AND RECOGNITION
Since its publication in November, “Missing in Chicago” has sparked an official review of police accountability systems by the Chicago Inspector General’s office. Conway and Reynolds-Tyler have testified before the Illinois Task Force on Missing and Murdered Chicago Women as it reviewed law enforcement processes and shaped new policies.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and nine aldermen issued a resolution in late April calling for a city task force and a Committee on Public Safety subject matter hearing at which they invited Conway, Reynolds-Tyler and CBS Chicago investigative journalist Dorothy Tucker to speak.
In April, the series won an Izzy Award for “outstanding achievement in independent media” from the Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM) at Ithaca College. It was recognized on the shortlist of finalists for the Sigma Awards, placing it in the top 10% of almost 600 data journalism projects submitted across 78 countries.
It is a finalist for the Better Government Association’s 20th Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards for Investigative Reporting for small newsrooms, the winners of which will be announced Thursday, May 9. It is also a finalist for eight Peter Lisagor Awards from the Chicago Headline Club, which will announce its winners Friday, May 10. Among its nominations, “Missing in Chicago” was nominated for Best Investigative Reporting, Best Reporting on Crime and Justice (small category), and Best Reporting on Race and Diversity (small category).
ABOUT CITY BUREAU
City Bureau is a journalism lab reimagining local media. The nonprofit news organization seeks to equip people with skills and resources, engage in critical public conversations and produce information that directly addresses people’s needs.
A national organization based in Chicago, its programs include the Civic Reporting Fellowship, Documenters programs locally and in partnership with newsrooms in 19 cities nationwide, and civic education events such as the Public Newsroom series.
Since launching its first programs in 2016 as an all-volunteer organization, City Bureau has always been focused on a bold vision for structural change: reimagining journalism as an accessible civic act and a tool for building community power. As of May 2024, its newsroom includes Editorial Director Ariel Cheung, Conway and three additional journalists, along with cohorts of emerging reporters in the fellowship program.
ABOUT SARAH CONWAY
Sarah Conway is the Senior Reporter and Special Projects Manager at City Bureau, where she writes investigative stories rooted in records and data about Chicago's deeply marginalized and overlooked people in an American city still grappling with decades of segregation and a limited social safety net. She reports on how government failures and public health crises often amplify the pre-existing issues of labor exploitation, police misconduct, the state's care of minors, and gender-based violence.
She joined City Bureau in 2016 as a reporter and became the Senior Reporter and Special Projects Manager in 2021. She was a Social Justice News Nexus Fellow at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism. Sarah is a graduate of the New York University's Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism.
Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, the Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Reader, Belt Magazine, Chicago magazine, Chicago Sun-Times, BuzzFeed News, South Side Weekly, In These Times, Block Club Chicago and other news outlets.
ABOUT TRINA REYNOLDS-TYLER
Trina Reynolds-Tyler is the Data Director at the Invisible Institute, a journalist and a native of Chicago’s South Side. She leads Beneath the Surface, a data science project employing machine learning to investigate the intersections of gender-based violence and policing. Reynolds-Tyler works to document how communities are forced to create safety and accountability amid systemic shortcomings from the Chicago Police Department. As a data scientist, she centers the practice of narrative justice in her inquiries. Reynolds-Tyler joined Invisible Institute in 2016.
Her past work includes analyzing 35 years of Cook County Criminal Court data as a research assistant at the Center for Survey Methodology. She was also a Pearson fellow and Pozen Center for Human Rights intern at the University of Chicago, exploring domestic and international conflict through the lens of prison abolition. She graduated from the university with a master's degree in Public Policy.
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