Cognitive Interview Protocol

Attachment A. Cognitive Interview Protocol
DATE: ___ ___ / ___ ___ / 2 0 22
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START TIME: ___ ___ : ___ ___ AM / PM

Hello, I’m [NAME] with RTI, calling on behalf of the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Thanks for agreeing to help us develop and test questions for future law enforcement surveys at BJS.
This call will take about 30 minutes. If this time still works for you, I’d like to start with a short summary
of the goals for today’s call and explain a bit about how I’ll conduct the interview.
IF NO LONGER A GOOD TIME, OFFER TO RESCHEDULE
IF STILL GOOD TIME, CONTINUE

The United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has proposed changes to the way
information on race and ethnicity is collected by the Federal government. The purpose of this
conversation is to get your feedback on draft questions to help BJS understand law enforcement
agency’s ability to collect such data if changes are implemented.
Please keep in mind that there are no right or wrong answers to my questions. One of our main goals
is to draft questions that make sense, so if anything about the questions is confusing or unclear, you
can help by pointing this out to me. Also, if you’re not sure how you would respond to any of the draft
questions or are not able to answer any of the questions, please let me know.
I am interested in hearing all your feedback, but because there is a lot to discuss, sometimes I might ask
that we move on to the next question before you’ve had a chance to share everything on your mind. At
the end of the interview, you can share any important feedback that you didn’t have a chance to share
earlier. Your participation is completely voluntary, and you do not have to answer any question you do
not wish to, but your responses will help improve our data collections.
Do you have any questions before we begin?

First, I’d like to ask about how your agency collects and stores information about race and ethnicity of
your sworn and nonsworn personnel.
•

How is the information on staff race and ethnicity collected? (e.g., questionnaire, observation,
self-report vs. proxy, mode of collection)?
o Where is that information stored? Who has access to it?
o When is that information collected? Is it ever updated? When? How often? Under what
circumstances?
o Is that information available for every [employee] for most, for some, or for a few?

Next, I have a few questions about the race and ethnicity information your agency collects.
• What race and/or ethnicity categories are used in your records?
o Probe on categories/fields in records and if they follow current federal standards
(American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian
or Other Pacific Islander, and White) or something else.
• What category names or labels are used in your system(s)?
• Do your records system(s) provide a way to record staff who identify as multi-racial or of more
than one ethnicity?
•

OMB currently recommends that federal agencies collect information on race using a minimum of
5 reporting categories (American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American,
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and White). One of OMB's proposals is to add a new
category for Middle Eastern or North African (MENA). Do your systems include information
about whether a staff member is Middle Eastern or North African? Would you be able to
respond to a survey with counts of how many of your staff identify as Middle Eastern or North
African?

•

Do your information systems collect information about employees’ race/ethnicity that is more
detailed than the five recommended race categories?
o For example, do your records systems include information on an employee’s specific
ethnic background, such as whether an Asian officer is of Chinese or Korean descent, or
whether a Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander officer is of Samoan or Tongan descent?

•

Do your systems collect additional information about staff members who are Hispanic/Latino?
o Are you able to provide any more detailed information on this item? For example,
whether a Hispanic/Latino officer is of Mexican or Cuban descent?

General Questions:
• Are there any race or ethnicity terms that we have asked about today that you aren’t familiar
with? Tell me more about those.
•

What other issues related to the collection of information on race and ethnicity are important
to your agency that you believe would be important for BJS to know before changing the way
we collect this information?

Thank you very much for taking the time to provide feedback. Your responses to this interview will be
summarized to better understand the impact revisions may have on reporting. The Office of
Management and Budget has released their initial proposals for revising the federal race and ethnicity
standards (Directive No. 15) for public comment. The feedback of state and local agencies that collect
and provide data into federal data collections is critical and referenced many times in OMB’s initial
proposal. If you would like to provide feedback directly to OMB that will become part of the public
record, please let us know and we can email you with a link to the federal register.