LEAP Survey Memo to OMB

MEMORANDUM

TO: Robert Sivinski

Office of Statistical and Science Policy

Office of Management and Budget

THROUGH: Kevin M. Scott

Acting Director

Bureau of Justice Statistics

Shelley S. Hyland

Senior Statistical Advisor

Bureau of Justice Statistics

Heather Brotsos

Deputy Director, Statistical Operations

Bureau of Justice Statistics

Alexia D. Cooper

Chief, Law Enforcement Statistics Unit

Bureau of Justice Statistics

FROM: Sean E. Goodison

Statistician, Law Enforcement Statistics Unit

Bureau of Justice Statistics

DATE: Month Day, 2024

SUBJECT: BJS request to conduct pilot testing of the Law Enforcement Agency Pulse (LEAP) survey to test the viability of an annual data collection, under the OMB generic clearance agreement (OMB Number 1121-0339).

Summary of the Current Request

BJS requests clearance to conduct pilot testing of the Law Enforcement Agency Pulse (LEAP) survey under its generic clearance agreement (OMB Control Number 1121-0339). The LEAP pilot is designed to assess the viability of an annual survey of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) by measuring (1) response rate and (2) data quality using questions from an established, previously fielded instrument, the 2020 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS). The pilot will use a shorter instrument than a typical LEMAS, a truncated data collection time frame and will feature an experimental design to test a more aggressive non-response and data quality follow-up strategy.

Introduction

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is requesting approval to pilot test a new survey as part of BJS’s Law Enforcement Core Statistics (LECS) program, for which BJS has a multi-year cooperative agreement with RTI International (RTI). The new survey, called the Law Enforcement Agency Pulse (LEAP), will be used to assess the viability of administering an annual survey of LEAs.

A larger societal focus on policing and public safety has heightened the importance of data regarding LEAs. This need is reflected in the May 2022 White House Executive Order (EO) 14074, “Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety,” (87 FR 32961) and the subsequent May 2023 National Science and Technology Council report, “Equity and Law Enforcement Data Collection, Use, and Transparency” which both called for improvements across a range of law enforcement issues, including data availability and transparency. To fulfill this demand, BJS is exploring the viability of changing the frequency and types of data collected via the LECS program, including shortening the period between LEMAS survey administrations from every four years to an annual administration with a shorter instrument.

The LEAP pilot will test the feasibility of conducting a future annual survey and explore the impact of enhanced survey correspondence on response rate and data quality. This pilot will examine whether BJS can achieve 1) an 80% overall response rate and 2) high data quality through more frequent non-response and data quality follow-up. Data quality will be assessed by factors such as item missingness, successful automated validation checks, and successful resolutions from data quality outreach efforts. The pilot will leverage an experimental design to address the research questions. The deliverables will include a technical report on the methodology and findings of the pilot outcomes (response rate and data quality). Statistical data collected as part of the pilot will not be released publicly, since the pilot is designed to test alternative survey specifications and not to provide representative, statistical estimates.

The LEAP instrument is composed of a subset of questions found on the 2020 LEMAS survey (OMB Control No. 1121-0240, expired 7/31/2023). The LEAP is intended to be a shorter instrument than the LEMAS that focuses on personnel, budget, hiring and separations, and usage of data. These questions can be found in Attachments A and B.¹

Data collection for the LEAP pilot will take place between September and December 2024, using a sample of 506 LEAs taken from the Law Enforcement Agency Roster (LEAR) that is maintained as part of the LECS program.

Testing Procedures

This section describes the sampling frame, proposed pilot sample, survey instrument, and experimental design of the study.

Sampling Frame

The sample will be selected from the LEAR, the primary sampling frame for all LECS program data collections. The LEAR was first developed in 2016 and is an enumeration of all publicly funded state, local, and tribal LEAs operating in the United States. It includes all general purpose² (i.e., local/county/regional police departments, sheriffs’ offices, and the 49 primary state and highway patrol agencies) and special purpose LEAs (e.g., park police, transit, tribal, campus, and independent school districts) in the United States. The LEAR is routinely updated to reflect the changing landscape of LEAs in operation. Data from the 2022 Census of State and Local Law Enforcement (CSLLEA, OMB Control No. 1121-0346, expires 8/31/2025) that has been merged into the LEAR will be the primary source used to identify ineligibles and ensure the most accurate and timely data available before the LEAP pilot sample is created. For non-respondents to the 2022 CSLLEA, additional information will be used to establish in-service status, eligibility, and agency staffing size. Additional data sources integrated into the LEAR include: the 2019 FBI’s Police Employee Data, data from state Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) commissions or offices, and state chief and sheriffs’ association lists. The LEAR also accounts for information discovered during the administration of BJS surveys including the 2016 LEMAS core, 2016 LEMAS Body-Worn Camera Supplement, 2018 CSLLEA, 2020 LEMAS core, 2021 Survey of Campus Law Enforcement Agencies (SCLEA), 2022 CSLLEA, and the 2023 LEMAS Post-Academy Training and Officer Wellness Survey (LEMAS PATOW). Information from these sources was merged and vetted, resulting in the most comprehensive and up-to-date list of law enforcement agencies known.

In addition, the following actions will be taken to reduce the possibility of including out-of-scope agencies from the LEAR:

1. Potential non-publicly funded LEAs (e.g., those serving private universities) will be identified and vetted to exclude ineligible agencies.

2. Publicly available information will be reviewed to determine if agencies do not have general sworn law enforcement authority.

3. Agency size will be checked across a variety of sources, including the 2020 LEMAS core and 2022 CSLLEA, in order to attempt to minimize the number of agencies in the frame with less than one full-time equivalent (FTE) sworn personnel.

The LEAP pilot sample will be selected using a stratified simple random sample design in which LEAs are stratified by agency type (local police departments and sheriff’s offices only) and agency size, with sampling done proportional to frame sizes. This process is consistent with previous LEMAS program surveys. Starting with the 2020 LEMAS, BJS and RTI developed a strategy to reduce burden on smaller agencies over time. Agencies with fewer than 100 full-time equivalent sworn personnel now have a low probability of being selected in more than one of the next five waves of LEMAS core or supplement administrations. LEAs with fewer than 100 full-time equivalent sworn personnel were assigned a permanent random number (PRN) and sorted by PRN within strata. The PRN is a random number selected uniformly between 0 and 1. After sorting the frame by the PRN, the first agencies in each stratum were selected for the 2020 LEMAS and 2023 LEMAS PATOW (OMB Control No. 1121-0379, expires 9/30/2026) where is the sample size for each stratum. These reductions to the eligible LEAs in the LEAR using this process is shown in Table 1.

For the LEAP pilot survey, the following steps will be done to select the sample:

1. Any recently identified new agencies will be added to the frame and be assigned a PRN.

2. Closed or otherwise ineligible agencies will be removed from the frame.

3. If needed, strata assignments will be updated based on new size information.

4. A new sample will be selected by beginning after the maximum PRN from the 2023 LEAMS PATOW in each stratum and selecting the next agencies in the stratum where is the sample size for the stratum.

5. The sampling weight is calculated as where is the population size of the stratum at the time of sampling.

LEAs with 100 or more FTE sworn personnel are not included in the pilot sample.³ There are two reasons for this decision. First, these largest agencies are considered self-representing agencies across LECS surveys, meaning they are selected with certainty for all surveys. Given the 2023 LEMAS PATOW has been in the field since November 2023, and the upcoming 2024 LEMAS survey is anticipated for January 2025, we do not want to contribute to survey fatigue among the self-representing agencies, particularly for a pilot program in which the data will not be released, and risk lowered participation in the 2024 LEMAS. Second, the self-representing agencies historically yield the highest response rates. Table 1 shows response rates from the 2020 LEMAS. As the pilot is looking to test how to potentially improve response rates through a shorter survey, we assume little needs to be assessed from the strata of LEAs that typically respond to considerably longer, more detailed surveys.

Table 1. 2020 LEMAS Response Rate, by Agency Type and Size

Agency Type	Full-time Equivalent Sworn Personnel Strata	2020 LEMAS Response Rate	Eligible for LEAP Pilot
Local police	100+	88.5	No
Sheriff’s office	100+	75.5	No
State police	All	98.0	No
Local police	50 <= FTE < 100	83.7	Yes
	25 <= FTE < 50	80.3	Yes
	10 <= FTE < 25	80.7	Yes
	5 <= FTE < 10	77.2	Yes
	2 <= FTE < 5	66.7	Yes
	1 <= FTE < 2	66.0	Yes
Sheriff’s office	50 <= FTE < 100	60.0	Yes
	25 <= FTE < 50	67.0	Yes
	10 <= FTE < 25	76.1	Yes
	5 <= FTE < 10	71.0	Yes
	2 <= FTE < 5	58.6	Yes, combined with strata below
	1 <= FTE < 2	N/A (No responses)	Yes, combined with strata above

Pilot Sample

The LEAP sample will be drawn using a similar method and eligibility criteria as the LEMAS sample. All local police departments and sheriffs’ offices with at least 1 FTE sworn personnel but less than 100 FTE sworn personnel are eligible for the pilot sample. The sample design for LEAP mirrors the LEMAS. LEAs are classified first by agency type, either local police department or sheriff’s office. Within local police departments, there are 6 strata based on size⁴ and within sheriff’s offices there are 5 strata based on size.⁵ The proposed sample is shown in Table 2.

Table 2. LEAP Pilot Strata, with Previous Survey Selections and Proposed Sample

LEAP Pilot Strata	Total agencies in LEAR eligible for LEMAS, as of June 2024	Agencies previously selected in 2020 LEMAS or 2023 LEMAS PATOW	Agencies eligible for LEAP selection, as of Feb 2024	Pilot sample size, N=506
Local PD with 50 <= FTE < 100	862	333	529	33
Local PD with 25 <= FTE < 50	1,692	598	1,094	64
Local PD with 10 <= FTE < 25	3,233	1,146	2,087	122
Local PD with 5 <= FTE < 10	2,657	952	1,705	100
Local PD with 2 <= FTE < 5	1,822	646	1,176	69
Local PD with FTE < 2	555	191	364	21
Sheriff with 50 <= FTE < 100	389	156	233	15
Sheriff with 25 <= FTE < 50	674	239	435	25
Sheriff with 10 <= FTE < 25	896	319	577	34
Sheriff with 5 <= FTE < 10	446	163	283	17
Sheriff with FTE < 5*	149	52	97	6
TOTAL	13,391	4,800	8,591	506 (409 LP, 97 SO)

Pilot Instrument

The LEAP pilot survey instrument consists of 8 questions taken from the 2020 LEMAS. The questions cover personnel counts, vacancies, personnel distributed across tasks, sex and race/ethnicity of full-time sworn personnel, sworn personnel hires and separations, and agency use of data for activities. All questions on the LEAP pilot are taken verbatim from the 2020 LEMAS instrument, with the exception of the question asking of personnel distributed across task. For that question, the LEAP pilot will use only the overall categories of Administration, Total Operations, Total Support, and Other Personnel Not Included Above. The LEAP pilot will maintain the description of the 4 main categories to include the subcategories as examples, but the pilot will not ask for the more granular count based on subcategories to reduce agency burden.

BJS previously conducted a pilot of revised race and ethnicity questions with LEAs during the development of revisions to Statistical Policy Directive Number 15 (SPD15; OMB Control No. 1121-0339, expires 4/30/2025). Based on that work, BJS concluded that LEAs are not currently and immediately equipped to answer race and ethnicity questions consistent with the revisions to SPD15 (see Federal Interagency Technical Working Group on Race and Ethnicity Standards: Annex 2. Testing Team Final Report). BJS will work with its criminal justice partners to assist in implementing SPD15 going forward, but collection consistent with the Directive is not feasible for this pilot study as only a few months have passed since the final revisions to SPD15 were released.

Experimental Design

To assess the effectiveness of recruitment and follow-up strategies, the sample will be divided into two groups – the experimental group and the control group (see Table 3). The experimental group will receive more frequent correspondence while the control group will receive the standard frequency and type of contact attempts based on the 2016 and 2020 LEMAS. In other words, the experimental group will get all outreach administered across the typical LEMAS fielding time (about 8 months) but within 4 months (see Table 4); whereas the control group will receive the standard outreach schedule used in the first 4 months of the LEMAS administration (see Table 5).

Table 3. LEAP Pilot Sample, by Strata and Experimental Condition

LEAP Pilot Strata	Pilot sample size, N=506	Experimental condition assignment	Control condition assignment
Local PD with 50 <= FTE < 100	33	17	16
Local PD with 25 <= FTE < 50	64	32	32
Local PD with 10 <= FTE < 25	122	61	61
Local PD with 5 <= FTE < 10	100	50	50
Local PD with 2 <= FTE < 5	69	34	35
Local PD with FTE < 2	21	11	10
Sheriff with 50 <= FTE < 100	15	7	8
Sheriff with 25 <= FTE < 50	25	13	12
Sheriff with 10 <= FTE < 25	34	17	17
Sheriff with 5 <= FTE < 10	17	8	9
Sheriff with FTE < 5*	6	3	3
TOTAL	506 (409 LP, 97 SO)	253 (205 LP, 48 SO)	253 (204 LP, 49 SO)

Variation in contact mode has been shown to increase response rates, so outreach methods will include USPS, email, and UPS delivery modes, as well as telephone NRFU, in our survey protocols for both samples. For all surveys, a thank-you letter or email (based on mode of submission) will be sent to the agency head once data collection and DQFU are completed. Details on the experiment and control recruitment protocols are detailed below.

The experimental design will be assessed by measuring factors related to response rate and data quality. Comparisons of outcomes will be made between the experimental and control condition, as well as between the experimental condition and the commiserate sample (agencies with fewer than 100 FTE sworn personnel) from the 2020 LEMAS. For this design, success is an experimental group with better response rate and data quality than the control group, as well as the experimental group having equal or better response rate and data quality as compared to the same strata in the 2020 LEMAS fielding. Response rate will be measured by the percentage of agencies providing a complete response to and submission of the LEAP survey. Data quality will be measured by factors including the percentage of item missingness, successful validation checks (i.e., agency responses do not trigger checks for potential outlier data points), and successful resolution of data quality follow-up (i.e., agencies in data quality follow-up protocols complete the process with confirmation of final answers).

Experimental Condition

To test of a more aggressive NRFU strategy and compressed timeline, LEAs in the experimental condition will receive almost weekly outreach to LEAs (vs 2-4 weeks for control LEAs). Non-responding LEAs in the experimental group will also receive 11 reminders (vs 6 for control LEAs) before the end of the study letter. Both conditions will be on the same data collection timeline (August 27 – December 20, 2024). Table 4 includes the outreach strategy and timeframe for the experimental condition.

Table 4. LEAP Pilot Collection Protocol – Experimental Condition

Data Collection Week	Activity	Component	Estimated Timeline	Delivery Method	Notes
-1	Pre-data collection notice	Letter of Endorsement from a IACP section, tailored by stratum	Tuesday 8/27/24	USPS	Will include instructions for updating contact information and how to reach the survey helpdesk
0	Invitation letter	Invitation letter, 2024 LEMAS flyer, letter of support	Thursday 9/5/2024	Priority mailing service (e.g., UPS or FedEx)
0	Invitation email	Invitation email	Thursday 9/5/2024	Email	Same information as the invitation letter
2	1st reminder	Reminder letter, Teleform Survey, business reply envelope (BRE) via USPS	Thursday 9/19/2024	USPS
3	2nd reminder	Reminder email	Thursday 9/26/24	Email	Same information as the 1st reminder.
4	3rd reminder	Reminder postcard	Thursday 10/3/24	USPS
5	4th reminder	Reminder email from IACP section, tailored by stratum	Thursday 10/10/24	Email	Will be emailed from an IACP account.
6	5th reminder	Reminder letter from IACP section, tailored by stratum	Thursday 10/17/24	USPS	Will have the same information as the 4th reminder and be mailed in an IACP envelope.
7-14	NRFU prompting	Up to 8 NRFU calls per nonresponding LEA	10/21/24 to 12/16/24	Up to eight NRFU calls per nonresponding LEA, one per week	There will be 2 call attempts the first week and no calls Thanksgiving week.
7	6th reminder	Reminder letter, flyer, Teleform, BRE	Thursday 10/24/24	Priority mailing service (e.g., UPS or FedEx)
8	7th reminder	Reminder email	Thursday 10/31/24	Email	Same information as the 6th reminder.
9	8th reminder	Reminder postcard	Thursday 11/7/24	USPS
10	9th reminder	Reminder email	Thursday 11/14/24	Email
11	10th reminder	Reminder letter	Tuesday 11/19/24	USPS
13	11th reminder	Reminder Email or Postcard	Thursday 12/5/24	USPS
14	End-of-study reminder	Reminder letter and email	Tuesday 12/12/24	USPS or email

*Gray indicates a primary physical mailing

Pre-notification Letter (Mailed)

Prior to data collection, LEAs will receive a pre-notification letter from an International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) section, chapter, or division that would be meaningful to the agency (Attachment C). The letter will notify the agency of the upcoming request and highlight the importance of participation.

Survey Invitation Packet and Email, Priority Mailing service (e.g., UPS or FedEx)

Data collection will begin with a survey invitation letter (sent through FedEx) to each point of contact (POC) to inform the agency about the survey and to provide a link to complete the web survey (Attachment D). The mailing will contain three documents: (1) an invitation letter signed by the BJS Acting Director, (2) an informational flyer (Attachment E), and (3) an endorsement letter signed by representatives from the IACP (Attachment F).

The invitation letter will include information about the type of staff that can best respond to the survey questions. The invitation will also provide a toll-free phone number and project-specific email address to contact RTI staff with questions. Instructions for changing the POC via the survey website or phone will be included. The survey invitation packet will include an informational flyer. The flyer will explain the goals of the LEAP pilot and the importance of agency participation.

One week after sending the survey invitation letter, the RTI data collection team will send an email to all POCs for whom an email address is available (Attachment G). The message content will be almost identical to the survey invitation letter. The emails will come from a project-specific email address using the RTI domain. Undeliverable emails will be captured in the LEAP inbox, which is monitored by data collection staff. No more than 3 business days after the email is sent, RTI will scrape bounce-back notifications, documenting agencies with undeliverable emails using the LEAP case management system (CMS). These cases will not be sent additional email unless an updated address is received and logged in the LEMAS CMS, an updated email is available via the LEAR, or IACP membership directory. Cases that were undeliverable due to a full inbox will be included in future email distributions.

First Reminder Letter, Mail Survey, and Business Reply Envelope

Approximately 2 weeks after the hardcopy survey invitations are sent, the data collection team will send the first reminder letter via USPS to all agencies that have not completed the survey (Attachment H). These letters, signed by the BJS project manager, will express the importance of the LEAP pilot to the law enforcement community and encourage response via the online survey or a paper copy via enclose business reply envelope. The data collection team will pull recent responders out of the mailing 1 to 2 business days before they are sent.

The next week, the RTI data collection team will again send an email with similar content to all nonrespondents with a listed email address (Attachment I).

Third Reminder Postcard

Two weeks after sending the first reminder letter, the data collection team will send a third reminder self-mailer via USPS encouraging participation (Attachment J). The self-mailer will be a brief message printed with the OJP seal on a card folded once and sent without an envelope, like a postcard. It will remind the nonrespondent of their recent invitation to complete the LEAP pilot survey and encourage them to do so as soon as possible.

Fourth Reminder Email, Tailored by Stratum

Approximately 1 week after the third reminder, the RTI team will send a reminder via email from IACP (Attachment K). Similar to the pre data collection notice, the email will be sent from a key stakeholder in the same section, chapter, or division of the IACP. It will reiterate the importance of the study and encourage participation. This email will be sent from a IACP inbox.

Fifth Reminder Letter, Tailored by Stratum

Two weeks after the third reminder, RTI will send a letter from the key stakeholder within IACP, with the same content as provided in the Fourth reminder email, via USPS (Attachment L). This letter will reiterate the importance of the study and encourage participation. This letter will be mailed in a IACP envelope.

Phone-based Nonresponse Follow-Up

Approximately 1 week after the fifth reminder, project staff will identify all nonresponding agencies and initiate NRFU phone activities (Attachment M). RTI call center staff will contact agency POCs and prompt nonrespondents to complete the survey online. NRFU will continue throughout the remainder of the data collection period, ending the third week of December.

Sixth Reminder, Flyer, Teleform, BRE, Priority Mailing service (e.g., UPS or FedEx)

One week after the fifth reminder, RTI will send another letter to nonresponding agencies via USPS (Attachment N); this letter will be directed to the agency head (AH), rather than the designated POC, and will reiterate our request for survey data directly to the person in charge of each agency. This mailing will include the Teleform survey with instructions to complete the survey and return it using an enclosed prepaid business reply envelope. The letter will be signed by the BJS project manager.

Seventh Reminder Email

Approximately a week after the sixth reminder is sent via UPS, an email addressed to the AH will be sent to nonrespondent agencies for which we have a valid email address (Attachment O). This message will note that the agency should have received a reminder via UPS and will include the text of the sixth reminder. The respondent will be asked to confirm that we have reached the correct agency and to verify that our messages have been sent to the correct address.

Eighth Reminder Postcard

One week after the seventh reminder is sent, RTI will send self-mailer via USPS encouraging participation (Attachment P). The self-mailer will be a brief message printed with the OJP seal on a card folded once and sent without an envelope, like a postcard. It will remind the nonrespondent of their recent invitation to complete the LEAP pilot survey and encourage them to do so as soon as possible.

Ninth Reminder Email

Approximately a week after the eighth reminder postcard is sent, an email addressed to the POC will be sent to nonrespondent agencies for which we have a valid email address (Attachment Q). This be a tailored message from BJS for their specific agency type, urging them to complete the survey.

Tenth Reminder Letter

One week after the ninth reminder email, RTI will send an additional reminder via USPS to make sure that the heads of each nonresponding agency are aware of the survey (Attachment R). This letter will also be signed by the BJS project manager.

Eleventh Reminder Email or Postcard, USPS

One week after the tenth reminder is sent, RTI will send an email or a self-mailer via USPS encouraging participation (Attachment S). All agencies with a valid email address will be sent this reminder by email, and only those without an email address will be sent a postcard. Both will remind the nonrespondent of their recent invitation to complete the LEAP pilot survey and encourage them to do so as soon as possible.

End-of-Study Letter

Approximately 2 weeks before data collection ends, the data collection team will send the nonresponsive AHs an end-of-study letter (Attachment T). It will announce the forthcoming closure of the LEA Pulse survey and make a final appeal to participate. The letter will be printed on BJS letterhead and signed by the BJS Acting Director. On the same day that the end-of-study letter is mailed, an end-of-study email with the same content will be sent to the POCs for whom we have an email address on file.

Control Condition

As noted above, there are two primary differences in the control group as compared to the experimental group. First, the time between outreach efforts is longer for the control group. Non-responding LEAs in the control condition will receive reminders every 2-4 weeks, whereas non-responding LEAs in the experimental condition will receive nearly weekly reminders. Second, the non-responding LEAs in the control group will only receive up to the sixth reminder before the end of study letter. In this way, the control group is on a more typical 8-month LEMAS reminder timeline but truncated at about 4 months. In comparison, the non-responding LEAs in the experimental group will receive up to eleven reminders before the end of study letter. Eleven reminders is more typical of prior LEMAS waves, however usually those eleven reminders take place across 8 months rather than around 4 months.

Table 5 shows the control condition timeline and reminders scheduled during the study. The content of the pre-notification, endorsement letters, reminders, and end of study letters is identical across both experimental and control conditions (see descriptions under Experimental Condition).

Table 5. LEAP Pilot Collection Protocol – Control Condition

Data Collection Week	Activity	Component	Estimated Timeline	Delivery Method	Notes
-1	Pre-data collection notice	Letter of Endorsement from a IACP section, tailored by stratum	Tuesday 8/27/24	USPS	Will include instructions for updating contact information and how to reach the survey helpdesk
0	Invitation letter	Invitation letter, LEAP flyer, letter of support	Thursday 9/5/2024	USPS
0	Invitation email	Invitation email	Thursday 9/5/2024	Email	Same information as the invitation letter
2	1st reminder	Reminder letter, Teleform Survey, business reply envelope (BRE) via USPS	Thursday 9/19/2024	USPS
3	2nd reminder	Reminder email	Thursday 9/26/24	Email	Same information as the 1st reminder.
7	3rd reminder	Reminder postcard	Thursday 10/24/24	USPS
9	4th reminder	Reminder email from IACP section, tailored by stratum	Thursday 11/7/24	Email	Will be emailed from an IACP account.
11	5th reminder	Reminder letter from IACP section, tailored by stratum	Tuesday 11/19/24	USPS	Will have the same information as the 4th reminder and be mailed in an IACP envelope.
12-14	NRFU prompting	Up to 3 NRFU calls per nonresponding LEA	11/25/24 to 12/16/24	Up to three NRFU calls per nonresponding LEA, one per week
13	6th reminder	Reminder letter, flyer, Teleform, BRE	Thursday 11/28/24	Priority mailing service (e.g., UPS or FedEx)
14	End-of-study reminder	Reminder letter and email	Tuesday 12/12/24	USPS or email

*Gray indicates a primary physical mailing

Burden Hours

The burden hour estimates are provided in Table 6. BJS has estimated the maximum total respondent burden for participating in the LEAP pilot at 337 hours.

The burden estimate is based in part on the 2020 LEMAS survey, which had a burden estimate of 2.5 hours for approximately 45 questions in an 18-page instrument. The LEAP pilot survey is only 8 questions in a 5-page survey. Based on this difference and our experience fielding these survey questions previously as part of the 2020 LEMAS, we estimate the burden of the LEAP pilot survey to be 40 minutes per agency.

Category of Respondent and Activity	Number of Respondents	Freq.	Total Annual Responses	Participation Time (minutes)	Total Burden (hours)
Local Governments: LEAP pilot survey	506	1	506	40	337

Table 6. Estimated Burden Hours for the LEAP Pilot Survey

Cost to the Federal Government

The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $300,160 for the RTI’s portion of the work and an estimated $68,620 for the GS-14 project manager’s work, resulting in a total estimated cost of $368,780 [$300,160 + $68,620]. 

Timeline

Milestone	Start Date	End Date
Obtain OMB generic clearance	07/15/24	07/29/24
Sample selection	07/30/24	08/15/24
Fielding period	08/27/24	12/20/24
Analyze outcomes (response rate and data quality)	12/23/24	01/31/25
Draft technical report	02/03/25	03/14/25

Data Confidentiality and Security

BJS is authorized to conduct this data collection under 34 U.S.C. § 10132. BJS may only use the information it collects for statistical or research purposes, consistent with 34 U.S.C. § 10134.

BJS is required to protect information identifiable to a private person from unauthorized disclosure and may not publicly release data in a way that could reasonably identify a specific private person [34 U.S.C. § 10231 and 28 CFR Part 22]. Any person who violates these provisions may be punished by a fine up to $10,000, in addition to any other penalties imposed by law. Further, per the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, federal information systems are protected from malicious activities through cybersecurity screening of transmitted data.

The BJS Data Protection Guidelines provide more detailed information on how BJS and its data collection agents will use and protect data collected under BJS’s authority.

Reporting

Upon completion of the LEAP pilot, RTI will provide BJS with a report describing the findings and including final recommendations. The report will provide detailed information on the testing methodology, respondent characteristics, and outcomes of interest for the pilot (response rate and data quality).

Protection of Human Subjects

RTI’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), which has Federal-wide assurance, reviewed all work under the LECS project per 28 CFR 46 and determined that all aspects of the project do not meet the definition of human subjects research (Attachment U).

Contact Information

Questions regarding any aspect of this project can be directed to:

Sean E. Goodison, Ph.D.

Statistician

Bureau of Justice Statistics

U.S. Department of Justice

810 7th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20531

Phone: (202) 305-0765

E-mail: Sean.Goodison@usdoj.gov

Attachments

Attachment A: LEAP Survey – Local Police Departments

Attachment B: LEAP Survey – Local Police Departments

Attachment C: Pre-Data Collection Notice

Attachment D: Invitation Letter

Attachment E: LEAP Flyer

Attachment F: IACP Letter of Support

Attachment G: Invitation Email

Attachment H: First Reminder Letter

Attachment I: Second Reminder Email

Attachment J: Third Reminder Postcard

Attachment K: Fourth Reminder Email

Attachment L: Fifth Reminder Letter

Attachment M: Non-response Phone Script

Attachment N: Sixth Reminder Letter

Attachment O: Seventh Reminder Email

Attachment P: Eighth Reminder Postcard

Attachment Q: Ninth Reminder Email

Attachment R: Tenth Reminder Letter

Attachment S: Eleventh Postcard and Email

Attachment T: End of Study Letter and Email

Attachment U: RTI IRB Determination

1 Like with the 2020 LEMAS, we intend to produce two questionaries with nearly identical questions. One instrument is for local police departments and another is for sheriff’s offices. The different instruments allow for more tailored references (e.g., sworn personnel in local police departments are officers, but sworn personnel in sheriff’s offices are deputies) and allow for some additional sheriff-only drill-downs of existing questions (e.g., additional questions about jail budgets, which are unique to sheriff’s offices).

2 General-purpose LEAs represent the population of active, publicly funded primary state agencies; sheriff’s offices; and municipal, county, or regional police departments. They are distinct from special-purpose agencies, sheriff’s offices with jail and court duties only, and federal LEAs.

3 All primary state LEAs have 100 or more FTEs, so no state agencies will be part of the LEAP pilot.

4 As measured by the count of FTE sworn personnel employed by the LEA. The count is calculated by adding all full-time sworn personnel to the sum of one-half of all part-time sworn personnel. For example, an LEA with 10 full-time sworn and 6 part-time sworn would have 13 FTE sworn (10 plus one-half of 6, which is 3).

5 For sheriff’s offices, the smallest two strata seen in the local police department breakdown (less than 2 FTE sworn personnel and between 2 and 5 FTE sworn personnel) are combined given the low count of sheriff’s offices in those strata and the lack of response from the smallest sheriffs strata during the 2020 LEMAS.

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