Testing the Effectiveness of an Advance Data Worksheet and Initial Hard-Copy Survey on Response Rates and Data Quality

• In Event: Lightning Talk: The Bureau of Justice Statistics Law Enforcement Statistics Unit Data Collections

Abstract

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), along with RTI International, invited 3,500 law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to participate in the 2023 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics Post-Academy Training and Officer Wellness (LEMAS PATOW) Survey. The LEMAS PATOW survey is part of BJS’s Law Enforcement Core Statistics (LECS) program, which includes multiple establishment surveys focused on policies, procedures, and personnel characteristics of state, county, and local LEAs in the United States. Given concerns about both response rates and data quality across establishment surveys, the LEMAS PATOW was administered using an experimental design. All agencies were divided into one of three groups at the survey invitation stage to include a control group, another group receiving a data worksheet, and a final group receiving a hard-copy survey with the invitation. Previous research provides some evidence on the effectiveness of providing a data worksheet prior to survey administration, which would allow the respondent to consult with colleagues and collect administrative data in advance. Additionally, web-based establishment surveys may not have a hard-copy survey or only provide a paper copy later in the fielding. This presentation describes the general results from conducting an experiment to formally test the effectiveness of an advance data worksheet and initial hard-copy survey in the LEMAS PATOW, with the aim of improving response rates and better directing and preparing respondents to answer critical data points such as the fiscal year operating and training budgets, numeric questions on training hours, and questions on staffing with improved data quality.

Author

• Sean Goodison, Bureau of Justice Statistics, USDOJ