I’ll paste the output. My prompt is below too so if you want to probe it for the best way. You could get it to make a program just have to keep pushing if stuff doesn’t work. I’m a developer so it helps if you know a little.
Prompt.
Where can I find data on reward money offered vs paid in the USA over the last 20 years
Reply
Short answer — there’s no single complete national dataset.
Reward programmes are fragmented across federal agencies, state/local Crime Stoppers chapters, private bail/bounty firms, and corporate/financial whistleblower schemes. To build a 20-year “offered vs paid” series you’ll need to pull from several sources and (optionally) stitch them together.
Below are the best places to look (with examples and why they matter):
1. Federal whistleblower & reward programs (high-quality, machine-readable annual reports)
• SEC — Office of the Whistleblower: publishes annual reports with amounts awarded each fiscal year (detailed PDFs). Great for securities whistleblower payments (large, consistent dataset since 2011). 
• DOJ / Department of Justice press releases and program pages — DOJ has various reward/whistleblower programs (and a recent pilot program). Useful for criminal/corporate enforcement reward totals where reported. 
• U.S. Department of State — Rewards for Justice (RFJ): posts individual reward offers and announcements (large, occasional awards). Good for transnational/terrorism-related reward offers. 
2. Federal law enforcement (FBI, DEA, etc.) — press releases and “rewards” pages
• The FBI and some other agencies publish individual reward offers (Ten Most Wanted, fugitive rewards) and occasional summaries. These are event-level (not neat annual totals), so you’d scrape press releases or file FOIA requests for bulk data. 
3. Crime Stoppers (national + local chapters) — aggregated rewards paid
• Crime Stoppers USA and many local chapters publish aggregate “Rewards Paid” and “Property Recovered” statistics (useful for local/community reward payouts). There are many chapter reports you can scrape/collect. 
4. Private-sector and industry sources (bounty/bail industry, private reward platforms)
• Bounty hunters / bail bond industry earnings and private reward platforms are private and fragmented — statistics exist in trade pieces, law reviews, and industry blogs but no central public dataset. See law reviews and industry reports for estimates. 
5. News archives & academic evaluations
• For historical context and one-off large reward offers (and sometimes totals), use major news archives, NCJRS/NIJ and academic reports (e.g., evaluations of Crime Stoppers). 
Practical approach to build the 20-year series
If your goal is an actual dataset (offered vs paid per year), I recommend this pipeline:
1. Decide scope — which kinds of rewards? (e.g., federal law-enforcement offers, whistleblower awards, Crime Stoppers/local rewards, private bounty/bail payments).
2. Pull high-quality federal reports first — SEC whistleblower annual reports, DOJ/State press release archives, FBI press releases. (These are the easiest to quantify.) 
3. Scrape Crime Stoppers chapters — collect annual “rewards paid” numbers from national and major local chapters (they often publish totals). 
4. Supplement with FOIA or API calls — for FBI/DOJ bulk records or if you need all reward offers (not just press releases).
5. Handle private/industry data as estimates — compile from industry reports, law journals, and news; treat these as less reliable. 
6. Normalize & document assumptions — e.g., currency (nominal vs inflation-adjusted), whether “offered” is the maximum stated offer or the amount actually committed, and whether “paid” includes partial payments.
Useful starting links (to grab data now)
• SEC Whistleblower Annual Report (FY2024 example). 
• SEC newsroom (whistleblower award press releases). 
• State Dept — Rewards for Justice program pages. 
• FBI reward announcements / press releases. 
• Crime Stoppers USA / sample local chapter stats pages. 
⸻
If you want, I can start pulling and assembling a first-pass dataset for you right now (for example: SEC whistleblower totals per year + Crime Stoppers national totals + notable federal reward offers per year) and deliver a CSV with year, source, offered (if available) and paid. Tell me whether to include or exclude (a) private bail/bounty payments, and (b) whether to inflation-adjust amounts — I’ll assume nominal USD if you don’t specify.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 4 days ago
I’ll paste the output. My prompt is below too so if you want to probe it for the best way. You could get it to make a program just have to keep pushing if stuff doesn’t work. I’m a developer so it helps if you know a little.
Prompt.
Where can I find data on reward money offered vs paid in the USA over the last 20 years
Reply Short answer — there’s no single complete national dataset.
Reward programmes are fragmented across federal agencies, state/local Crime Stoppers chapters, private bail/bounty firms, and corporate/financial whistleblower schemes. To build a 20-year “offered vs paid” series you’ll need to pull from several sources and (optionally) stitch them together.
Below are the best places to look (with examples and why they matter): 1. Federal whistleblower & reward programs (high-quality, machine-readable annual reports) • SEC — Office of the Whistleblower: publishes annual reports with amounts awarded each fiscal year (detailed PDFs). Great for securities whistleblower payments (large, consistent dataset since 2011).  • DOJ / Department of Justice press releases and program pages — DOJ has various reward/whistleblower programs (and a recent pilot program). Useful for criminal/corporate enforcement reward totals where reported.  • U.S. Department of State — Rewards for Justice (RFJ): posts individual reward offers and announcements (large, occasional awards). Good for transnational/terrorism-related reward offers.  2. Federal law enforcement (FBI, DEA, etc.) — press releases and “rewards” pages • The FBI and some other agencies publish individual reward offers (Ten Most Wanted, fugitive rewards) and occasional summaries. These are event-level (not neat annual totals), so you’d scrape press releases or file FOIA requests for bulk data.  3. Crime Stoppers (national + local chapters) — aggregated rewards paid • Crime Stoppers USA and many local chapters publish aggregate “Rewards Paid” and “Property Recovered” statistics (useful for local/community reward payouts). There are many chapter reports you can scrape/collect.  4. Private-sector and industry sources (bounty/bail industry, private reward platforms) • Bounty hunters / bail bond industry earnings and private reward platforms are private and fragmented — statistics exist in trade pieces, law reviews, and industry blogs but no central public dataset. See law reviews and industry reports for estimates.  5. News archives & academic evaluations • For historical context and one-off large reward offers (and sometimes totals), use major news archives, NCJRS/NIJ and academic reports (e.g., evaluations of Crime Stoppers). 
Practical approach to build the 20-year series
If your goal is an actual dataset (offered vs paid per year), I recommend this pipeline: 1. Decide scope — which kinds of rewards? (e.g., federal law-enforcement offers, whistleblower awards, Crime Stoppers/local rewards, private bounty/bail payments). 2. Pull high-quality federal reports first — SEC whistleblower annual reports, DOJ/State press release archives, FBI press releases. (These are the easiest to quantify.)  3. Scrape Crime Stoppers chapters — collect annual “rewards paid” numbers from national and major local chapters (they often publish totals).  4. Supplement with FOIA or API calls — for FBI/DOJ bulk records or if you need all reward offers (not just press releases). 5. Handle private/industry data as estimates — compile from industry reports, law journals, and news; treat these as less reliable.  6. Normalize & document assumptions — e.g., currency (nominal vs inflation-adjusted), whether “offered” is the maximum stated offer or the amount actually committed, and whether “paid” includes partial payments.
Useful starting links (to grab data now) • SEC Whistleblower Annual Report (FY2024 example).  • SEC newsroom (whistleblower award press releases).  • State Dept — Rewards for Justice program pages.  • FBI reward announcements / press releases.  • Crime Stoppers USA / sample local chapter stats pages. 
⸻
If you want, I can start pulling and assembling a first-pass dataset for you right now (for example: SEC whistleblower totals per year + Crime Stoppers national totals + notable federal reward offers per year) and deliver a CSV with year, source, offered (if available) and paid. Tell me whether to include or exclude (a) private bail/bounty payments, and (b) whether to inflation-adjust amounts — I’ll assume nominal USD if you don’t specify.