Innovations in Improving Response Rates for Law Enforcement Agency Surveys

• In Event: From Experiment to Insight: Shaping the Future of Justice Surveys

Abstract

In 2020, approximately $138 billion was spent by federal, state and local governments on police-related activities. Sizeable investments by local governments have led to new debates about the appropriate size, function, and control over these activities in the current economic and social climate. Given the quickly changing landscape around policing, the ability to respond to emerging policing issues quickly is of critical concern. The Law Enforcement Agency Pulse (LEAP) survey was developed by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to address this concern and investigate 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). This presentation describes the research results from 500 agencies, selected using a stratified simple random sample design, examining the impact of a shorter instrument than a typical LEMAS, a truncated data collection time frame and featured an experimental design to test a more aggressive non-response and data quality follow-up strategy. Implications for future research will be discussed.

Author

• Alexia Cooper, Bureau of Justice Statistics