Chemical Defense Program Threat Response Operation (TRO) Stakeholder Feedback Survey

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Chemical Defense Program

Threat Response Operation (TRO) Pilot

Stakeholder Feedback Survey

Note: The questions below will be included in a Survey Monkey web questionnaire. The format below is representative only and the layout will be dictated by Survey Monkey requirements. Sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) will be omitted.

Purpose: Collect qualitative feedback from current TRO participating stakeholders regarding their experience with the TRO and its products, including the supplied chemical detectors. This survey is anonymous and voluntary and the information collected will be used to improve future Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office (CWMD) products or services. Feedback will provide insights into stakeholder perceptions, experiences and expectations as well as an early warning of issues with operation of the program. Additionally, the results will help focus attention on areas where communication, training, or changes in DHS/CWMD operations might improve delivery of products or services, in order to improve the Chemical Defense Program. This is not a statistical survey yielding quantitative results that can be generalized to the population of study. DHS defines a “stakeholder” as a person or organization who may be impacted by a policy or action. This may include a person or organization that is actively involved in the project or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by execution or completion of the project.

Paperwork Reduction Action Statement of Public Burden: Collection of this information is made under 49 U.S.C. 114(e) and (f). An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The control number assigned to this collection is OMB 1601-0014, with an expiration date of 11/30/2021. Providing this information is voluntary. CWMD will use the information to improve service delivery, by which we mean systematic review of the operation of a program compared to a set of explicit or implicit standards, as a means of contributing to the continuous improvement of the program—in this case the Chemical Defense Program within the CWMD Office. The survey should take no more than 15 minutes to complete. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: Don Potter, US Department of Homeland Security, Countering WMD Office, don.potter@hq.dhs.gov.

Each participating organization should provide its responses to the Survey Monkey based on aggregated and averaged inputs from the detector/equipment users within the organization. In other words, the Survey should be taken by one person within the participating organization and should be representative of the overall assessment of the detectors/equipment. The CWMD Office is not asking that every user provides feedback via the Survey but that each participating organization provides representational data as to how well the program has been administered and how well the detectors/equipment have functioned.

The Statement of Public Burden above will be displayed in the instructions of the online survey.

Description:

DHS initiated a TRO, as part of its Chemical Defense Program, designed to deter and disrupt potential use of chemical agents. The pilot program deployed low cost, wearable detection equipment to responders in major metropolitan areas. DHS provided the technical guidance and training on the functionality of the detectors. As a follow-up to the pilot, consistent with its Pilot Plan, DHS would like to use survey results to develop best practices and identify shortcomings in the use of wearable toxic gas detection equipment.

Current participants in the TRO Pilot represent federal, state, and local agencies (such as law enforcement, emergency response, and emergency management), as well as private sector mass transit operators operating for the local governments. All respondents have voluntarily entered into bailment agreements for the use of federally-owned chemical detectors and have voluntarily received training on the use of the devices. The CWMD Office maintains distribution lists for its products and participant jurisdictions/entities. The CWMD Office does not endorse any particular product.

Survey Monkey Questionnaire Content

Introduction: The Threat Response Operation (TRO) is a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office (CWMD) Pilot within its Chemical Defense Program.  The TRO Pilot Team initiated the Pilot to evaluate DHS’s ability to rapidly and effectively respond to the identified threat, as well as response agencies’ ability to integrate new capabilities into existing CONOPS.  The goal is to identify any DHS process and resource deficiencies in responding rapidly to a threat, and potential challenges with the training provided, from the perspective of the end-user.  The purpose of this survey is to collect qualitative stakeholder feedback information from current TRO participating stakeholders regarding their experience with the TRO and its products, including the supplied chemical detectors.  This survey is anonymous and voluntary and the information collected will be used to improve future DHS CWMD products or services.  Each participating organization should provide its responses based on aggregated and averaged inputs from the detector/equipment users within the organization.  In other words, the survey should be taken by one person within the participating organization and should be representative of the overall assessment of the detectors/equipment.  The CWMD Office is not asking that every user provides feedback via the survey, but that each participating organization provides representational data as to how well the program has been administered and how well the detectors/equipment have functioned.

Please try to provide an answer to all of the questions in each section. If for some reason a user cannot provide an answer to a question, the survey will allow the user to scroll past that question without an answer, to complete the rest of the survey.

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement of Public Burden: Collection of this information is made under 49 U.S.C. 114(e) and (f). An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The control number assigned to this collection is OMB 1601-0014, with an expiration date of 11/30/2021. Providing this information is voluntary. CWMD will use the information to improve service delivery, by which we mean systematic review of the operation of a program compared to a set of explicit or implicit standards, as a means of contributing to the continuous improvement of the program—in this case the Chemical Defense Program within the CWMD Office. The survey should take no more than 15 minutes to complete. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: Don Potter, US Department of Homeland Security, Countering WMD Office, don.potter@hq.dhs.gov.

Section 1: Working with DHS/CWMD (Program Communications)

Instructions: Please respond to the statements in Questions 1 through 4 by selecting one of the following five options: (1) Strongly Disagree, (2) Disagree, (3) Neutral, (4) Agree, (5) Strongly Agree.  Speaking for my organization:

Statement	Strongly Disagree (1)	Disagree (2)	Neutral (3)	Agree (4)	Strongly Agree (5)
I understand the purpose of DHS’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office (CWMD).
I understand the purpose of DHS/CWMD’s Chemical Defense Program’s TRO Pilot.
I have received accurate communications regarding logistics, scheduling, etc. from DHS/CWMD while participating in this TRO Pilot.
I have received timely information from DHS/CWMD while participating in this TRO Pilot.

Section 2: Detector Ease of Use Questions (Program Effectiveness)

Instructions: Please respond to the statements in Questions 5 through 15 by selecting one of the following five options: (1) Strongly Disagree, (2) Disagree, (3) Neutral, (4) Agree, (5) Strongly Agree.  On average, my organization finds that:

Statement	Strongly Disagree (1)	Disagree (2)	Neutral (3)	Agree (4)	Strongly Agree (5)
The detector was easy to operate with one hand
The detector’s controls were easy to use
The detector’s display was easy to read
The detector’s display was intuitive
The training provided for this detector was easy to understand
The detector did not interfere with my movement
The detector was easy to wear
The detector bump test was easy to perform
The detector bump test was not time-intensive
The detector’s alarms (e.g., visible or audible) are sufficiently noticeable to alert the user when an alarm has occurred
When an alarm has occurred, the detector’s alarm indicators are easy to understand/interpret

Section 3: False Alarm Questions (Program Effectiveness)

Instructions: Please select the appropriate response.

Statement	Less than 30	30-60	61-90	91-120	121-150	151-180	More than 180	Unknown
Estimated number of days the detector has been in use since initial issue of the detector until today. Please select one of the eight options.

Statement	0	1-3	4-6	7-10	11+	Unknown
Estimated number of alarms since initial issue of the detector until today. Please select one of the six options.

Statement	0%	1-25%	26-50%	51-75%	76+%	Unknown
Estimated percentage of false alarms since initial issue of the detector until today. Please select one of the six options.

Section 4: Venue Information (Program Efficiency)

Instructions: Please select all the answers that apply, up to all seven options.  If "Other" is selected, please provide an explanation.

Question	Subway	Light Rail	Train	Ferry	Enclosed Space (Building)	Aircraft	Other
What is your primary area of responsibility?

Please Explain “Other”: ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_________________________________________________________________