Information Collection Supporting Statement
Implementing a Leadership Framework for Traffic Safety and Seat Belt Enforcement
Submitted by
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
September 2014
Rev. 071515 lls
Implementing a Leadership Framework for Traffic Safety and Seat Belt Enforcement
OMB Control No. 2127-XXXX
B. Statistical Methods (As this information collection request involves interviews and no statistical analyses, we are responding only to the pertinent questions.)
A primary goal of agency selection was to get a range of agencies in size, local community demographics, structure, and laws (e.g., primary vs. secondary). NHTSA plans to conduct the interviews in the following locations: Nashville, TN (and surrounding districts) with the Tennessee State Patrol; St. Louis, MO with the St. Louis County Police Department; Richfield, UT with the Sevier County Sheriff’s Department. NHTSA selected these three locations because of the range of agency size, diversity of regions and unique local issues, and willingness to participate. A goal was to get a range of agency sizes and types—a large state agency, a sheriff’s department, and a municipal agency (county or city). NHTSA looked at sites of similar population and size to model communities, and then studied the data with respect to fatality rates, unrestrained injury and fatality rates, seatbelt usage rates, etc. The selection process was data driven, and focused on these characteristics to yield a range of agency sizes, in addition to balancing primary and secondary laws across locations. Sites were identified based on statistical analysis of available data in addition to willingness of agencies to work with NHTSA.
Tennessee Highway Patrol. The Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) is the highway patrol agency and state police organization for the state of Tennessee, responsible for enforcing all federal and state laws relating to traffic on state highways. The THP is a division of the Tennessee Department of Safety. It has approximately 800 sworn officers. Tennessee has a primary seatbelt enforcement law with a $10 fine for the first offense. It is a large agency with statewide jurisdiction and a primary focus on traffic enforcement.
Sevier County Sheriff. Sevier County is located in the state of Utah. The Sheriff’s office consists of 54 deputies, with 30 involved in patrol/investigation and support services. Utah has a secondary seatbelt enforcement statute and there is a $45 fine.
St. Louis County Police Department. Tennessee was an original choice based on favorable matching of characteristics with the Washington State model community and they were both primary states. Utah has more sheriffs and the unique pressures of being an elected official was of interest to the study, so a county within Utah that was comparable to the smallest model community was selected (Sevier County). For the mid-level municipality most similar to the Boise, Idaho model community, St. Louis was chosen based on similar characteristics as well as an interesting situation of being a primary municipality within a secondary state.
There will be a total of 108 interview sessions; 54 in each of the two phases. Eighteen individuals will be interviewed at each site for a total of 54 individuals. Each individual will be interviewed twice: once during the project implementation and once at the end of the demonstration project. A mid and post implementation interview process is proposed to measure the development of the leadership model between two points in time. While a pre-implementation interview would have added some information to the study, the timing of the intervention precluded obtaining such information under an OMB approval and the information was not necessary to achieve the objectives of the study. Specifically, the mid and post interview process will show if the leadership processes are expanding, or at the very least, being maintained over time. The project is not static in nature therefore studying the long-term, sustainability of the intervention will be invaluable.
Interviewees will either be self-selected or selected by the demonstration agencies. The purpose of these interviews is to document how a law enforcement agency implements a new leadership approach for seat belt enforcement so that the experiences of the demonstration sites can serve as a resource to other agencies undertaking new seat belt enforcement initiatives. A set of interviews at each location will be with key stakeholders, law enforcement personnel involved in seatbelt enforcement, and law enforcement personnel not included directly in the implementation efforts. NHTSA proposes to conduct a set of individual interviews with line officers and individual or group interviews with leadership within each demonstration agency. While individual interviews will work best with line officers, either group or individual interviews can work effectively with the senior leadership. Flexibility is built in to this approach in order to be mindful of senior leadership’s scheduling constraints. In addition, there will be interviews with personnel not directly included in the enforcement program. Interviewing those not directly involved is necessary to measure whether the new messages regarding seatbelt enforcement are leaking through to other areas of the agency, which may indicate message strength.
NHTSA’s contractor for this effort will coordinate logistics, access to personnel, and meeting locations with a liaison from each of the demonstration locations.
NHTSA believes that the interview methodology is the best way to gain an in-depth understanding of how law enforcement personnel and key stakeholders feel about seatbelt enforcement efforts during the course of the project. The interview format will allow respondents to comment on the areas that they think are most important. Because interviews are a qualitative research method, this collection of information will not require statistical methodology. For each phase, the same questions will be used with similar personnel in each of the three locations. However, the questions will be slightly different between the implementation phase and post-implementation phase.
There are three types of interviewees have been identified:
Implementation Law Enforcement Personnel—Law enforcement personnel who are part of the implementation effort, including rank and file officers, sergeants, and administrative officers including top commanders. These personnel are directly involved with the implementation. (NHTSA Form 1266)
Non-implementation Law enforcement Personnel—Law enforcement personnel who are not part of the implementation effort, but part of the demonstration agency, including officers of varying rank who are not directly involved with implementation efforts. (NHTSA Form 1267)
Key Stakeholders—may include community leaders, traffic safety commission and other relevant agency representatives, policy focused community members who help shape the laws, and department of transportation representatives. (NHTSA Form 1265)
The interviewees will either be self-selected or selected by the demonstration agency. The demonstration agency will have the best insights into individuals who best represent these three types for inclusion into the study and will assist in announcements of interview participation opportunities as well as scheduling that is amenable to particular interviewees.
NHTSA’s contractor will work
closely with the demonstration communities (well in advance of data
collection) to provide them with the information they need to select
interviewees who can provide the best data for the study. This will
ensure that the right people are selected, have ample time to be
provided information about the study, and are able to be replaced
with another suitable participant if they choose not to participate.
To get volunteers, the contractor will provide information to the demonstration sites about what types of volunteers they are seeking, but will ultimately rely on each site to distribute that information to officers. If officers do not volunteer for interviews, the contractor will work with the site to explore additional ways of disseminating information about the interviews and/or encouraging participation; if necessary, the site will be asked to select additional participants for interviews.
The contractor will work with the communities to ensure that interviews are scheduled at times and places that meet the needs of all participants. Contractor staff will create and distribute an agenda for the visit, but the interview times and locations within the agenda will be structured around the site’s preferences.
Minimal personally identifiable information (PII) will be obtained during the scheduling of the interviews. Any names and contact information collected for this purpose will be stored on secure network computers and only staff at Westat working on the project will have access to it. Westat’s computers comply with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) guidelines. Participant information will not be connected to the data. Contact information will only be for the purpose of re-inviting, but that contact information will not be connected to the actual data from the interviews.
All interview data (including audio recordings that will be created to serve as a backup to written notes) will be maintained by Westat on project folders located on Westat’s secured server. Study data will only be accessible to Westat staff assigned to this project. Any printed data or notes will be kept in a locked, secure cabinet located in Westat’s Rockville offices for the duration of the study. All Westat employees have taken and signed a Confidentiality pledge. All electronic study data will be destroyed at the end of the study.
At the start of each interview, the interviewer will tell participants that their names will not be used in any report. The interviewer will also explain that the report to NHTSA will contain only a summary of the comments that reflects both consensus and minority opinions, so that anything they share specifically will not be shared with others directly and not attributed to them. Interviewees will also be informed that their participation in the interview is voluntary and that their responses will be treated in a secure manner.
Interviews will be conducted by staff of NHTSA’s contractor, who have extensive experience conducting interviews and focus groups. Interviewers will use structured guides (See Attachments A-F) to conduct these interviews. Still, the interviewers will ensure that no interview exceeds 75 minutes in length.
The attached interview questions (Attachments A-F) contain questions for implementation and post-implementation phases for each set of interviewees.
Interviewees will either be self-selected or selected by the demonstration communities. Because it will be important to ensure that we speak with some seasoned officers (who are familiar with departmental practices and policies), it is likely that our final interview sample will include a combination of volunteers and those who are selected due to the relevance of their experience. Interview respondents will also come from various levels within the law enforcement agencies, and will include line officers, middle management, and command level leadership staff.
NHTSA’s contractor will work
closely with the demonstration communities (well in advance of data
collection) to provide them with the information they need to select
interviewees who can provide the best data for the study. This will
ensure that the right people are selected, have ample time to be
provided information about the study, and are able to be replaced
with another suitable participant if they choose not to participate.
To get volunteers, the contractor will provide information to the demonstration sites about what types of volunteers they are seeking, but will ultimately rely on each site to distribute that information to officers. If officers do not volunteer for interviews, the contractor will work with the site to explore additional ways of distributing information about the interviews and/or encouraging participation; if necessary, the site will be asked to select additional participants for interviews.
The contractor will also work with the communities to ensure that interviews are scheduled at times and places that meet the needs of all participants.
No formal test procedures are planned. However, both NHTSA and the contractor have reviewed all interview guides. In addition, the contractor asked a law enforcement officer (similar to those who will be recruited for the study) to review the guides and provide feedback; his comments have already been incorporated into the guides.
The agency contact for this project is Liza Lemaster-Sandbank, NHTSA,NTI-112, Occupant Protection Division, Highway Safety Specialist, 202-366-4292, liza.lemaster@dot.com
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | SUPPORTING STATEMENT |
| Author | John Choros |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-25 |