24 Hours in, 21% Funded
How yesterday started: After a deal falls apart, Homicide Watch D.C. is going on hiatus.
We knew that was coming, but there's no good way to read about the potential end of a project you've spent two years working on. We had this Kickstarter campaign almost ready to go, and the story landed as we were waiting on final approval. We launched just after 6 p.m. last night.
A MyFoxDC reporter saw one of our tweets managed to get here in time to watch us hit Go. Here's his story.
A day later, we're at $8,481, or 21% of our goal. There's a long way to go, but you, internet, are amazing.
Huge thanks to those who've helped spread the word:
And others. I'll try to get more links in future updates. But to everyone, thank you. More to come.
- Chris
1,110
Backers
$47,450
pledged of $40,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding period
Aug 14, 2012 -
Sep 13, 2012
(30 days)
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- Website: homicidewatch.org
Pledge $10 or more
297 backers
Support better crime coverage in Washington, DC. We'll list your name in a special thank you post on Homicide Watch DC.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $20 or more
229 backers
Get a copy of our 2011 Year in Review packaged as an ebook. This includes 23 stories about crime in Washington, DC, plus guest columns from DC's mayor and city council members.
Estimated delivery: Sep 2012Pledge $50 or more
202 backers
You’ll receive the 2012 Year in Review packaged as an ebook. This package will provide a look back at a year of crime in DC, including long-form narratives, investigative features and data visualizations. It will arrive in January 2013. We'll also list your name in a special thank you post.
Estimated delivery: Jan 2013Pledge $125 or more
27 backers
Your sponsorship message, with an image and link, runs in the Homicide Watch DC sidebar for one month. It is seen by thousands of DC residents, who will know that you’re helping to support a unique and cherished resource. Our users spend an average of six minutes on the site and viewed 330,000 pages last month.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2013Pledge $175 or more
7 backers
Get our data! At your request, we'll send you a spreadsheet containing up to one year of DC homicide data. This includes details about every victim and every suspect in our custom-built database. We record victims' and suspects' name, age, race, and gender. For victims, we also gather the homicide location, method (shooting, stabbing, etc) and place of death (at the scene or hospital). For suspects, we include arrest date and case status. This is data we use ourselves to produce stories like this: http://bit.ly/OSaSY0
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $250 or more
11 backers Limited (39 of 50 left)
Invitation to a special happy hour with Homicide Watch team at ONA12 in San Francisco. Hang out with journalists trying to reinvent criminal justice reporting.
Estimated delivery: Sep 2012Pledge $350 or more
0 backers
Get our data! At your request, we'll send you a spreadsheet containing up to two years of DC homicide data. This includes details about every victim and every suspect in our custom-built database. We record victims' and suspects' name, age, race, and gender. For victims, we also gather the homicide location, method (shooting, stabbing, etc) and place of death (at the scene or hospital). For suspects, we include arrest date and case status. This is data we use ourselves to produce stories like this: http://bit.ly/OSaSY0
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $500 or more
4 backers Limited (6 of 10 left)
Lunch with Homicide Watch founding editor and 2013 Nieman-Berkman fellow Laura Amico at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.
Estimated delivery: Nov 2012Pledge $1,000 or more
1 backer Limited (29 of 30 left)
Year in Review Sponsor. You get a preview of our 2012 Year in Review, plus a skype chat with the reporters putting it together, plus a sponsorship message, link and image on the splash page. This sponsorship won’t expire. You’ll also receive the entire collection of Year in Review stories packaged as a ebook.
Estimated delivery: Dec 2012Pledge $5,000 or more
1 backer Limited (4 of 5 left)
The Homicide Watch team will guest teach a class or lecture for an audience of your choice.
Estimated delivery: Nov 2012
Comments
Creator Homicide Watch on August 27, 2012
We thought about that, or just taking acquitted suspects off the site. What we decided, though, was that if we did that, the next thing likely to come up in search results was someone else reporting an arrest. We didn't want the permanent record on the internet for someone cleared of a crime to be a news brief of their arrest. So, since we have really, really good SEO (especially where we're the only site following a case), we decided it's better to make sure the top story on their profile is absolutely clear.
We also added outcome tracking, so someone cleared (by acquittal or dropped charges) won't be listed as "suspected" but "acquitted" or "charges dropped" for that case. Here's the full list: http://homicidewatch.org/suspects/status/
- Chris
Creator Joe Murphy on August 26, 2012
A thought: It might also be worth throwing in some robots.txt action on the site for suspects who are innocent -- provided you create a directory structure that allows for that.
-Joe
Creator Homicide Watch on August 26, 2012
We thought a lot about this when building the site. Arrests are part of the public record. Police announce them and post names online, and they're reported by other news organizations. So names are out there, searchable, and we can't make them disappear.
However, because we follow cases throughout the court process, we're able to show how cases end, including which ones end in acquittals or dropped charges. So when you search someone's name, the fact that they've been acquitted should be at the top of their profile page. Here's an example: http://homicidewatch.org/suspects/patricia-ann-cave/.
It's important for us to show how the justice system works, so that means writing stories on arrests and posting court documents we use in our reporting. We're also trying to create a space for suspects' families to share their experiences, because there is loss on both sides.
Creator Seth Crosby on August 26, 2012
It concerns me a little bit that HW publishes the names of suspects who have not been convicted. We are an innocent until proven guilty country. Could you please justify this practice?
Creator Homicide Watch on August 17, 2012
Thanks Tom. Means a lot to have your support.
Creator Tom Stites on August 15, 2012
I don't know Laura and Chris Amico but I was once a police reporter and I absolutely love what they've done. Homicide Watch D.C. strikes me as so important that I've donated -- and emailed five Washington friends who are senior journalists to urge them to pitch in and pass the word forward.
Here's wishing you a booming success -- may you raise way more money than you're asking so that you can hire a full-time pro to handle the site. And have a fruitful fellowship year, free of worry about your site.