MEMORANDUM
MEMORANDUM TO: Joseph Nye
Information and Regulatory Affairs
Office of Management and Budget
Robert Sivinski
Information and Regulatory Affairs
Office of Management and Budget
THROUGH: Amy C. Blasher
Unit Chief
Uniform Crime Reporting Program
Federal Bureau of Investigation
FROM: Bryan A. Sell
Survey Statistician
Uniform Crime Reporting Program
Federal Bureau of Investigation
DATE: May 10, 2021
SUBJECT: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Request for Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Clearance for developmental activities including a pilot testing and follow-on discussion for a new data collection on law enforcement contacts with the public under the OMB generic clearance agreement (OMB Number 1110-0057).
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Comprehensive Testing Plan: Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection (LESDC)
On June 16, 2020, the President of the United States signed into law a Bill which creates a national system to track law enforcement suicides. The “Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection Act” (LESDCA) directs the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to establish a new data collection to better understand and prevent suicides among current and former law enforcement personnel at the federal, state, local, and tribal levels within one year of its enactment. The law establishes requirements for the United States Attorney General, through the FBI, to collect and report on law enforcement suicides and attempted suicides. The data gathered through this collection will provide statistical transparency and help develop solutions to this complex problem.
As a first step towards the establishment of the data collection, a pilot study will be conducted with five main objectives:
Establishment of a frame encompassing potential participants as specified in the LESDCA.
Assessment of the feasibility that respondents will be aware of or capable of reporting information on attempted suicides.
Assessment of the questionnaire by using common methodology associated with cognitive testing.
Assessment of possible additions to the data collection, to assist in the monitoring of coverage associated with the data collection.
Assessment of the usability and function of the online data collection tool.
The LESDCA includes an expansive definition of agencies and individuals that fall under the category of “law enforcement.” The following definitions are provided in Section 2, Subsection (e):
“[T]he term ‘law enforcement agency’ means a Federal, State, Tribal, or local agency engaged in the prevention, detection, or investigation, prosecution, or adjudication of any violation of the criminal laws of the United States, a State, Tribal, or a political subdivision of a State.”
“[T]the term ‘law enforcement officer’ means any current or former officer (including a correctional officer), agent, or employee of the United States, a State, Indian Tribe, or a political subdivision of a State authorized by law to engage in or supervise the prevention, detection, investigation, or prosecution of any violation of the criminal laws of the United States, a State, Indian Tribe, or a political subdivision of a State.”
In addition to the definitions provided, the LESDCA directs the FBI to establish a means for law enforcement agencies to provide information on suicides or attempted suicides that occur within the law enforcement agencies.
Based upon a review by the FBI Office of the General Counsel, the law establishes a scope of collection that exceeds the typical universe of law enforcement agencies for the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program or other Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division systems managed by the FBI. Given the complexity of the task and the short time horizon to establish the data collection, the FBI UCR Program will initiate pilot activities centered on cognitive testing of a preliminary version of a questionnaire developed using the well-established connections with the FBI UCR Program’s universe of contributing agencies. However, the final scope of the data collection includes additional criminal justice agencies, as defined below. As cognitive testing progresses, additional participants from the expanded set of criminal justice agencies meeting the requirements of the LESDCA will be incorporated into cognitive interviews to refine the questionnaire in an iterative fashion. The goal of the cognitive testing is to finalize a standard set of questions that will be applicable to the law enforcement agencies as defined by the statute.
To begin, the FBI UCR Program has an established universe of participants described as law enforcement agencies which are made up of law enforcement officers, defined as, “[a]ll local, county, state, and federal law enforcement officers (such as municipal, county police officers, constables, state police, highway patrol, sheriffs, their deputies, federal law enforcement officers, marshals, special agents, etc.) who are sworn by their respective authorities to uphold the law and to safeguard the rights, lives, and property of individuals. They must have statutory arrest powers and be members of a law enforcement agency organized and funded for the purposes of keeping order and for preventing and detecting crimes, and apprehending those responsible” (FBI UCR Program Definitions, internal document prepared by FBI Crime Statistics Management Unit, 2019).
The definitions provided in the LESDCA align more closely to the definition of a criminal justice agency as specified in the CJIS Security Policy, rather than the functional definition of law enforcement agency currently used within the FBI UCR Program. The CJIS Security Policy defines a criminal justice agency as, “[t]he courts, a governmental agency, or any subunit of a governmental agency which performs the administration of criminal justice pursuant to a statute or executive order and which allocates a substantial part of its annual budget to the administration of criminal justice. State and federal Inspectors General Offices are included.” While the FBI CJIS Division is positioned to support the establishment of the LESDC due to its existing connections with criminal justice agencies, there is a need to commit sufficient time to ensure the universe of the data collection is fully defined.
A major area of evaluation for the pilot is addressing the feasibility of agencies to have knowledge of an attempted suicide within their agency. The ability to determine a benchmark or representative figure on the number of attempted suicides is difficult to test, as there is nearly no viable way to ensure that an individual who attempts suicide would report the attempt to either their employing agency or another participating entity. Therefore, this pilot will focus on measuring the ability of agencies to be aware that an attempted suicide may have taken place rather than determining a representative benchmark. To do this, the cognitive interview phase of the pilot will utilize a series of probe questions, which will include asking the respondent whether an agency would have certain information about an officer within their agency. The answers to these questions will provide a qualitative evaluation of how feasible it is that an agency would be aware of both a suicide and a suicide attempt within their agency.
Since the enactment of the LESDCA, the FBI UCR Program has been working to gather information on suicide within the law enforcement (LE) community. For the purposes of this document, and explaining the steps the FBI UCR Program has taken, the term “LE community” will refer to agencies representing the typical contributing agency of the FBI UCR Program and the term, “criminal justice (CJ) community” will refer to all potential occupations and agencies covered under the statutory definitions found in the LESDCA. The FBI UCR Program created a task force made up of members of the LE community, including representatives from the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA), and tribal LE representatives. The task force also includes representatives from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), academic experts in the fields of criminal justice and statistics, and subject matter experts on mental health and suicide events. The goal of the task force is to provide subject matter expertise and guidance on the issue of suicides among the LE community to the FBI UCR Program and to assist in the development of the LESDC. Below is a listing of major participants and organizations taking part in the LESDC task force.
FBI Task Force Contributors:
FBI Executive Programs Instruction Unit
FBI Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
FBI San Diego Field Office
External Task Force Contributors:
Association of State UCR Programs (ASUCRP)
Kentucky Statistical Analysis Center
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
ATF
Blue H.E.L.P (Honor. Educate. Lead. Prevent.)
Public Safety Telecommunicator representative (To be determined)
Major LE Organizations:
IACP
MCCA
NSA
National Native American LE Association (NNALEA)
Tribal LE representative
BJS
The LESDCA defined a set of information categories to be collected as part of the LESDC. The LESDC task force assisted the FBI UCR Program in constructing the framework of the collection focusing on these five main areas of interest:
Circumstances
Occupation
Method
Demographics
General Location
The FBI UCR Program used these main areas of focus to develop a questionnaire designed to gather details and data elements surrounding a suicide or attempted suicide of an officer or member of the LE community.
The FBI UCR Program has also coordinated with subject matter experts in the field of mental health to gain a better understanding of the nature of suicide and its presence within the LE community. The LESDC task force includes FBI training experts who work as part of the FBI EAP to provide peer counseling to FBI employees dealing with a range of emotional and psychological needs. They have provided insight and expertise in understanding instances of suicide and mental health challenges faced by members of the LE community. The LESDC task force also includes a psychologist from the NNALEA, who has a Ph.D. in philosophy and clinical psychology from the University of North Dakota. These subject matter experts (SMEs) have contributed valuable insight to the task force in the area of mental health and helped to further construct the framework of the collection.
Another major contributor to the LESDC development is Blue H.E.L.P. Blue H.E.L.P. is a non-profit organization and SME in the field of advocacy that collects and tracks instances of suicide and attempted suicide among members of the LE community. These instances are reported to Blue H.E.L.P. from any source that wishes to provide information.
These reports are then vetted and Blue H.E.L.P. directly contacts the family of the victim to collect detailed information on the incident. Through Blue H.E.L.P., the FBI UCR Program has gained valuable insight law enforcement suicides and plans to continue coordinating with them, as they provide support for the LESDC.
In the fall of 2020, the FBI UCR Program presented the completed questionnaire and plans to pilot this collection to the CJIS Advisory Policy Board (APB). These plans were recommended by the CJIS APB, without changes, and forwarded to the FBI Director for his approval. Since the APB recommendation, the LESDC task force and the CJIS Division have proposed slight modifications to the questionnaire. A copy of the questionnaire for the LESDC that will be used for the pilot is included with this comprehensive testing plan (See Appendix A).
For the pilot, a sample of available law enforcement agencies, as defined above by the FBI UCR Program, have been initially selected to participate in the cognitive interviews. As the universe of potential participants is refined, additional participants will be added to cognitive interviews to achieve a final sample size of 15-25 agencies. The selection criteria for the pilot sample reflects a purposive sample and will represent a broad spectrum of agency characteristics, including agency size, agency type, and geographic location. Each participating agency will also be pre-screened for potential candidates which have experienced a past qualifying event for use in the usability testing and assessment of burden as detailed in the later stages of the pilot. All agencies selected for the pilot must agree voluntarily to participate in the pilot research.
The pilot is scheduled to begin as soon as approval is received from the Office of Management and Budget under the FBI UCR Program’s existing Generic Clearance for development activities. FBI UCR interviewers will schedule cognitive interviews with all participating agencies as part of the pilot process. In addition, agencies with a past qualifying event will be asked to participate in usability testing on the finalized version of the questionnaire. In order to meet the expectations to begin data collection on January 1, 2022, the pilot activities will close in sufficient time to provide public notice on the questionnaire, implementation process, and burden estimate in September 2021.
The FBI UCR Program will contact each agency that participates in the cognitive interview to schedule a telephone interview. All pilot participants will receive an invitation informing them of the purpose of the survey, the voluntary nature of the study, how the participants were selected, and the telephone number to call with questions about the study. The interview will be conducted by a member of the FBI UCR staff and will focus on the respondent’s evaluation of the questionnaire.
All interviewers will prepare for the interview by having a copy of the LESDC questionnaire and a standardized interview collection form containing a list of structured probe questions. Interviewers will be briefed on the purpose and objectives of the cognitive interview and will be prepared to identify and to record the respondent’s answers based on the key measures listed in the comprehensive testing plan. The interviewer will plan for approximately 90 minutes in which to conduct the interview with each respondent. Each respondent will receive an email invitation detailing the time and method for the interview, along with the elements of informed consent and data confidentiality. The interview will be conducted by telephone, and the interviewer will conduct the interview from a workstation that contains all necessary equipment and resources.
This cognitive testing interview will be conducted using a form of concurrent verbalization or “Think-Aloud” methodology. This form of cognitive testing is designed to allow the respondent to openly verbalize and elaborate on their answers as the interviewer walks them through the questionnaire. This method will focus on interviewers leading pilot participants through each question of the questionnaire, and then allowing participants to provide answers to probative questions about their evaluation of the questionnaire and their input on comprehension, response mapping, and response editing. The objective of these open interviews is to identify problems of ambiguity or misunderstanding; evaluate feasible knowledge of suicide and attempted suicide events; identify potential improvements on form appearance; flow and clarity of instructions; or highlight other difficulties respondents have answering questions.
The following are examples of structured probe questions to be used by the interviewers to guide the respondent through each question in the questionnaire:
Can you tell me, in your own words, what you think this question is asking?
What does this question mean to you?
Do you feel this is a question people will or will not have difficulty understanding?
What kinds of things did you think about when we asked this question?
In general, do you feel agencies will have this information about the officer?
In general, do you feel agencies will be reluctant to provide this information about the officer?
Interviewers will be provided with direction and training on the goals and objectives of the collection and pilot test prior to conducting the interviews. Interviewers should also be cognizant of potential issues present within the collection and testing methodology. The interviews will be conducted using a standardized method to maximize efficiency and provide uniform understanding on the part of the respondent that will simplify evaluation after the interviews have concluded. All answers will be documented and compiled by the interviewers for the purpose of analysis in preparation for evaluation of potential adjustments to the collection and a final pilot report detailing the pilot findings. All information provided by the participants will be maintained within the FBI UCR Program for use in a final pilot report. This final pilot report will be reviewed for privacy concerns prior to release.
Once the interview begins, the interviewer will again provide the respondent with the elements of informed consent and data confidentiality found in the comprehensive testing plan. The interviewer will ask the respondent if there are any questions before proceeding to explain the purpose and objectives of the cognitive testing interview.
A major data quality concern of the LESDC is determining how to measure proper statistical coverage of suicides and attempted suicides within a difficult to measure population. Suicides among the CJ community is not a common area of statistical study, so previous insight or research is limited on the subject. To inform the development of the LESDC and ensure quality data with measurable coverage rates, the FBI UCR Program is proposing additional methodology to better understand how often agencies would be aware of a law enforcement officer suicide.
For this pilot study, the ability to determine coverage can be evaluated using an additional methodology designed to measure an agency’s ability to be aware of a suicide or attempted suicide within their agencies. This information will provide the FBI UCR Program with insight to how likely it is, and under what circumstances an agency would be aware of a suicide or attempted suicide, should one occur within their agency.
This methodology, along with questions regarding agency wellness programs and policies, will work to further develop measurements of coverage for this collection. These proposed questions will be completed annually for all agencies regardless of whether they have a qualifying incident. In this way, the FBI UCR Program will be able to generate total coverage metrics of all participating agencies, as well as evaluate for potential missing data and confidence of data quality. Annual wellness submissions will also allow potential evaluation of attempted suicide cognizance and feasibility. The wellness section of the questionnaire will provide yearly metrics on what resources are available to officers in the areas of mental health and suicide prevention counseling and support. This information could be used to determine an agency’s ability to know of a suicide or attempted suicide within their agency. The FBI UCR Program will consult with task force members and SMEs along with stakeholders such as the ASUCRP and the CJIS APB to further develop our methodology for collecting and evaluating potential coverage issues with this collection.
The interviewer will compile the respondents’ answers and submit them for storage and future analysis in the development of a pilot report containing this study’s findings. The data collected by the pilot testing will be maintained within the FBI UCR systems for a minimum of two years after formal launch of the collection to all participating agencies, in keeping with typical record retention policies. The FBI UCR Program may opt to retain longer if operationally needed to effectively monitor the launch of the LESDC. The answers collected by the cognitive interviewers will be analyzed for patterns of potential issues associated with the usability and possible comprehension of certain data elements, as well as any indication of difficulties with the web-based collection application. Responses will be evaluated by the main elements listed above and for potential missing data and response bias.
Pilot agencies with past qualifying events will be asked to participate in usability testing of the web form to be used for the data collection and estimation of burden. Agencies will complete the questionnaire through the electronic application, along with a list of questions designed to evaluate the usability and functionality of the system. Such supplementary questions will focus on the participant’s experience in accessing the system, completion time of the questionnaire, and the process of saving and submitting the form to the FBI UCR Program. (See Appendix B for the After-Action Survey.) These questions will be part of the electronic application and not considered part of the LESDC. All participating agencies will be able to use guidance information to assist in filling out the questionnaire. This guidance will be available within the electronic application and will outline basic instructions for completing each question. This guidance will be available to pilot agencies when they begin the questionnaire. Apart from the guidance information, pilot agencies must complete the questionnaire without assistance from interviewers or program staff. The pilot agencies will then submit the completed questionnaire to the FBI UCR Program via the electronic application.
The FBI UCR program is requesting a total of 50 burden hours for a maximum of 25 LE personnel. This total burden estimation is based on a calculation of two hours per respondent (30 minutes for completion of the questionnaire and 90 minutes for completion of the cognitive testing interview).
Once the Pilot results have been submitted and the telephone interviews with participating agencies are complete, the results of the pilot testing will be evaluated by FBI UCR staff to identify potential issues and possible improvements within the questionnaire.
Due to the limited number of participants, the analysis will be qualitative rather than quantitative. Notes from the telephone interviews will be analyzed for patterns or problems to determine if there are gaps in understanding. The verbal responses will be categorized by whether there were comprehension problems, confusion related to each collection element, or missing information from the collection instructions provided during the usability portion of the pilot. The categorized responses will be used to develop visual representations of the cognitive interview results to better emphasize the detected patterns and qualitative findings of the testing results.
The results of the pilot will be utilized to evaluate the questionnaire in several key areas of response quality. Analysis will show if respondents are fully comprehending the questionnaire questions and are able to interpret the need of providing the information for the collection. Pilot responses will be evaluated for potential patterns of misinterpretation and the FBI UCR Program will consider adjustments to questions identified in the post-pilot interviews as problematic for the respondents. The respondents’ answers will also be analyzed for the ability to accurately provide data relevant to the questionnaire.
The FBI UCR Program will also evaluate the pilot results for the ability of respondents to compensate for information that may not be readily available at the time they complete the questionnaire. This will be most apparent when respondents answer “Part V: LEO Wellness Policy and Training” of the questionnaire. Cognitive testing responses will be used to evaluate the questionnaire for any issues with recalling this information. Finally, responses will be evaluated for respondents’ ability to provide a response to each question contained within the questionnaire. This will apply to both detecting patterns around questions respondents fail to answer/leave blank as well as the usability of the electronic application by respondents to complete and submit their response. Usability data will be collected using the After-Action Survey (Appendix B). Data collected from the survey will be compiled by UCR staff and categorized based on metrics related to areas such as the use of the collection application (Appendix A), the use of the questionnaire, completion time, and other areas of usability evaluation. These categories will then be developed into visual representations to better aid analysis of the findings and development of possible improvements to the collection.
The analysis of the pilot results will begin immediately after testing is completed. After evaluation and analysis of the pilot results are complete, the FBI UCR Program will draft a pilot report detailing all data discussed in this plan from the pilot, along with the findings from analysis of the submissions, and after-action survey responses. This report will include a full description of pilot methods utilized during testing and all conclusions drawn from the evaluation of the results. All data will be available and maintained within the FBI UCR system and will be included with the full report.
Due
to the Congressional requirements associated with the LESDCA, the
pilot report will be sent to Congress and made available to the
public as part of the report requirement due to Congress on June 16,
2022. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will be provided the
full pilot report with pilot data prior to the launch of the live
collection on January 1, 2022. The OMB will also be provided time to
evaluate the pilot findings and provide feedback prior to
January
1, 2022.
Attempted Suicide – An unsuccessful suicide act.
Former Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) – a retired LEO.
Incident – Occurrence of the suicide or attempted suicide.
Incident Date – Date the incident occurred, or the beginning of the time period in which it occurred, as appropriate.
Law enforcement officer – Any current or former LEO (including corrections LEO), agent, or employee of the United States, a state, Indian tribe, or a political subdivision of a state authorized by law to engage in, or supervise the prevention, detection, investigation, or prosecution of any violation of the criminal laws of the United States, a state, Indian tribe, or a political subdivision of a state.
Line of duty – Any action which a LEO, whose primary functions are crime control or investigations, reduction, enforcement of the criminal law and keeping public order, is obligated and authorized by law to perform his/her functions. The LEO is compensated by the public law enforcement agency which he or she serves.
On duty – A LEO is working their assigned shift at the time of incident.
Off duty – A LEO who is not working their assigned shift at the time of incident.
Policy – A standard course of action that has been officially established by an organization, business, political party, etc.
Position Status – Job status of a LEO at time of death.
Active Duty – Full time on-duty.
Reserve – Full time training duty.
Suspended – Out of work for disciplinary reasons.
Medically Separated – Medical condition which renders the LEO unfit to perform their required duties.
Retired – Withdrawn from occupation.
Public Safety Telecommunicators – Operate telephone, radio, or other communication systems to receive and communicate requests for emergency assistance at 9-1-1 public safety answering points and emergency operations centers. Take information from the public and other sources regarding crimes, threats, disturbances, acts of terrorism, fires, medical emergencies, and other public safety matters. May coordinate and provide information to law enforcement and emergency response personnel. May access sensitive databases and other information sources as needed. May provide additional instructions to callers based on knowledge of and certification in law enforcement, fire, or emergency medical procedures.
Illustrative examples: 911 Operator , Emergency Operator , Public Safety Dispatcher , Public Safety Telecommunicator
Suicide – The act of taking one’s own life.
Traumatic – Emotionally disturbing or distressing. Relating to or causing psychological trauma.
Data Collection—Initial Questionnaire for Pilot Testing
This report is authorized by the Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection Act, Title 34, § 50701 and Title 28, § 534, U.S. Code. Please use this form to report circumstances and other details regarding law enforcement officers who have committed suicide. Information provided throughout this form should apply to data that was available at the time of form completion. The FBI will use this critical information for statistical purposes related to law enforcement, including research, training, and publication. Based on legislation requirements, data submitted within this questionnaire will be reported to the United States Congress and will be accessed on the Internet at https://fbi.gov/cde. Your accuracy, cooperation, effort, and time are critical to our mission and appreciated.
The goal of this collection is to develop, implement, collect, report, and maintain statistics on federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement suicides.
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PART 1 – ADMINISTRATIVE DATA PERTAINING TO VICTIM LEO |
1.1 Reporting Agency: |
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1.2 Originating Agency Identifier (ORI): _____________________ |
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1.3 Address of headquarters: ___________________________________________________________________-__________ |
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(Mailing address) (City) (State) (Zip code) |
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1.4 Telephone (___) __________ |
1.5 Email address: __________________________________ |
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1.6 Occupation |
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Agency victim was employed: Name of Agency Address of Agency Telephone |
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PART II – PERSONAL DATA |
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2.1 Age at time of attempt/death: _________ |
2.2 Gender: |
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2.3 Race (choose all that apply): |
2.4 Ethnicity: |
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2.5 Total work experience at time of incident: |
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2.6 Position status |
2.7 Marital status |
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2.8 Children
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2.9 Military Veteran
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PART III – GENERAL DATA PERTAINING TO INCIDENT |
3.1 Agency incident or case number: ________________________________________________________ |
3.2 Date of incident: ____________________________ |
3.3 Time of incident: ___________________________ |
3.4 Attempt/suicide occurred: |
(mm/dd/yyyy) |
(Military hh:mm) |
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3.5 Location of incident: ___________________________________________________________________________________
City County State Country
3.6 Type of location of incident:
Commercial (place of business and surrounding property, e.g., parking lot)
Government (government building and surrounding property, e.g., parking lot)
Public space (highway/road/alley/sidewalk)
Public space (lake/river/park)
Other public space (specify) _________________________________________
Residential (place of dwelling and its property, e.g., yard, private driveway)
Other location (specify) _____________________________________________
3.7 Manner of attempt/death (check all that apply): |
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3.8 Was this a murder/suicide or an attempted murder/suicide?
Yes
No
Unknown
3.9 Did the victim leave notice of the attempt/suicide?
Yes
No (skip to Part IV)
Unknown (skip to Part IV)
3.10 What type of notification was left behind?
Note/written correspondence
Text message
Social media
Phone call/voice message
Video
Audio recording
Email correspondence
Other (Specify) _________________________________________
PART IV– CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE INCIDENT |
4.1 Did the victim report - or was known to have experienced - any of the following within the last year? (check all that apply)
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YES |
NO |
UNKNOWN |
Indirect involvement of an incident resulting in the death or serious injury of a client/customer |
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Experienced the death of a close colleague, friend, or family member |
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Survivors Guilt |
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Threats of violence resulting from job performance results |
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Other (specify) |
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4.2 Did the victim report a pending investigation against their employing agency?
Yes
No
Unknown
4.3 Is/was the victims office of employment under investigation?
Yes (if yes move to next question)
No
Unknown
4.4 Is/was the victim the target of the investigation?
Yes
No
Unknown
4.5 Is/was the victim a witness in an investigation involving their colleague?
Yes
No
Unknown
4.6 Has/is the victim (been/being) charged for a crime?
Yes
No
Unknown
4.7 Has the victim been disciplined (or pending discipline) for a violation of Policy?
Yes
No
Unknown
4.8 Is/was the victim scheduled to stand trial, in civil or criminal litigation, for an offense he/she allegedly committed?
Yes (proceed to next question)
No (skip to question 4.11)
Unknown (skip to question 4.11)
4.9 Would a guilty verdict preclude further service by the victim?
Yes
No
Unknown
4.10 Was the victim was on a promotional list?
Yes
No
Unknown
4.11 Was the victim recently denied a promotion or transfer?
Yes
No
Unknown
4.12 Did the victim report he/she (is/was) suffering from any of the following? (check all that apply)
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YES |
NO |
UNKNOWN |
Post-traumatic stress disorder |
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Depression |
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Alcohol/Drug abuse |
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Physical Illness impacting the ability to perform in the capacity of the job |
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Concern over impending retirement |
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Domestic violence |
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Chronic illness |
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Financial problems |
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Relationship problems (pending divorce, affairs) |
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Other (specify) |
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4.13 Are you aware if the victim exhibited any mental health/warning signs prior to the incident? (check all that apply)
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YES |
NO |
UNKNOWN |
Making threats to harm or kill themselves |
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Seeking access to drugs, weapons, or other items that could cause harm |
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Talking or writing about death and dying |
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Expressing hopelessness, rage, anger, or anxiety |
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Engaging in reckless or risky behavior |
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Increasing use of alcohol or drugs |
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Chronic absence from work |
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Showing signs of mood changes |
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Prior suicide attempts |
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Other (specify) |
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Prepared by: ______________________________________________________ Date: _________/__________/_________ (mm/dd/yyyy)
Email address: ____________________________________________________ Telephone: _________________________
NOTE: If there are any questions concerning the completion of this form, contact the staff of the FBI UCR Program at 304‑625‑4830.
Privacy Act Statement
Authority: The collection of this information is authorized under the Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection Act, 34 U.S.C. § 50701; 28 U.S.C. § 534; 34 U.S.C. § 10211; 44 U.S.C. § 3101; and the general record keeping provision of the Administrative Procedures Act (5 U.S.C. § 301). The system will automatically collect certain contact information from you with your submission (e.g. telephone number and email address).
Principal Purpose: Collecting your contact information allows the FBI to contact you with any clarifying questions regarding your submission. This allows the FBI to verify submitted information and ensure the accuracy of the data.
Routine Uses: All contact information will be maintained in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974. Your information may be disclosed with your consent, and may be disclosed without your consent as permitted by all applicable routine uses as published in the Federal Register (FR), including the routine uses for The FBI Central Records System (JUSTICE/FBI-002), published at 63 FR 8659, 671 (Feb. 20, 1998) and amended at 66 FR 8425 (Jan. 31, 2001), 66 FR 17200 (Mar. 29, 2001), and 82 FR 24147 (May 25, 2017), and the FBI Online Collaboration Systems (JUSTICE/FBI-004), published at 82 FR 57291 (Dec. 4, 2017). Routine uses may include sharing information with other federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial law enforcement agencies.
Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection
After Action Survey
Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP) Use
Think back to registering and obtaining access to the LEEP.
Was the process simple and easy to navigate?
Did you feel the security measures in place to protect the information submitted to the collection is necessary?
Did the security of the LEEP help with any apprehension you may have had in submission of this data?
Was the collection easy to locate?
Was the form easy to complete?
Do you have any recommendation on improving the survey layout?
Did you contact anyone from the FBI UCR Program staff for assistance?
If you contacted the FBI UCR Program’s staff for additional assistance, please describe the interaction.
Survey Instrument
How much time did it take you to complete the survey instrument?
5 – 10 minutes
11 – 20 minutes
21 – 30 minutes
More than 30 minutes
Did
the survey instrument appropriately guide you to which questions to
answer, based on your responses?
Did the questionnaire ask appropriate questions to assess the incident based on the criteria established within the legislation to include:
Circumstance of the incident
General location of the incident
Demographic information
Occupational category
Method used
Were
the questions easily understood?
Did you use the tooltips during the session to further understand the question?
If
yes, did the tooltip thoroughly explain the intent and meaning of
the question?
Were there any questions you did not understand which need further clarification or defined as a tooltip?
If
yes – please explain
Do you feel additional questions are needed?
If
yes – please explain
Additional Information
Are you comfortable with the collection as it has been established?
If
no – please explain
Do you have concerns contributing data to a collection such as this?
If
yes – please explain
Additional thoughts/comments/concerns:
This research project seeks your response to several elements associated with a suicide or attempted suicide of a member of the law enforcement community. This survey should take less than 30 minutes to complete. While completing this survey will provide no direct benefit for you, it will provide data to be analyzed to support the ability to develop a greater understanding of law enforcement suicide events and potential ways to help minimize their occurrence in the future.
Please complete the provided survey and return it to the researchers. Your participation in the survey is completely voluntary and constitutes no risk to you. If you change your mind during the survey and decide you do not wish to continue, you may stop at any time. Also, you are not required to answer any questions that you do not want to answer. Returning a survey indicates your consent to participate in this study.
For this study, please answer each question of the survey using a past example of a qualifying incident from your agency. Do not include any personally identifiable information for either yourself or any member of your department in the survey questionnaire. You may provide your own or department information in the submission process within the electronic application. Any information provided as part of this survey will only be viewed by members of the FBI UCR Program for the purposes of confirming participation.
The FBI UCR Program thanks you in advance for your help, time, and especially your insight in filling out this questionnaire. By completing responses to this survey, you are consenting for your participation. If you have any questions, or want information on research results, please feel free to contact the Crime Statistics Management Unit Chief, FBI UCR , by telephone at 304-625-4840.
Thank you for participating in this cognitive interview.
Your feedback will help the FBI UCR Program refine the language and instructions for the new Uniform Crime Reporting Program’s Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection.
The purpose of this interview is to gain insight to your experiences answering the proposed collection questionnaire.
Your participation in this interview is voluntary and you may discontinue your participation at any time without penalty.
Your name will not be associated with any information you provide and will only be known to the individuals at the FBI working on the project.
This interview is a requirement of the project. If you choose not to complete the interview or voluntarily choose to discontinue the interview, you will no longer be responsible for further participation in the project.
There are no known risks associated with this interview.
The interview will take approximately 90 minutes.
The interview will not be recorded. Notes from your observations will be recorded by [insert name].
The information obtained through these interviews may be published in reports or presented at professional meetings, but your identity will be kept strictly confidential.
If you have any questions about your rights as a participant that I have not answered, you may contact the Crime Statistics Management Unit Chief at 304-625-4840.
Do you have any questions regarding me, the project, or this interview before we begin?
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Sell, Bryan A. (CJISD) (FBI) |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2023-07-31 |