PartB_SupportingStatement_ICTP

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

COPS Interoperable Communications Technology Program Assessment Survey

Part B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods:

This collection of information does not require the employment of statistical methods. The ICTP assessment survey will be administered to all of the 65 law enforcement and partner public safety agencies that received COPS ICTP grants from Fiscal Years 2003-2006. The two anticipated publications based on this assessment (case studies and best practices publications) will not be statistical in nature. .

B.1. Respondent Universe and Sampling Methods

This assessment will include the universe of COPS ICTP grants awarded from Fiscal Years 2003-2006; therefore, no sampling methods or other respondent selection methods were used.

A total of 65 grants were awarded during that period. There will be approximately 6 respondents per grant award, since the projects are regional in scope and involve multiple public safety disciplines. Thus the maximum number of respondents will be approximately 400 over a three-year assessment period.

The expected response rate for the collection as a whole is 90 percent. The COPS ICTP assessment survey has not been administered previously. The non-profit research organization performing the assessment has achieved at least a 90 percent response rate in prior telephone surveys of federal grantees by employing the methods that will be used in this assessment.

B2. Procedures for the Collection of Information

Questions related to sampling procedures are not applicable to this assessment because the universe of COPS ICTP grantees from Fiscal Year 2003-2006 will be surveyed.

Periodic data collection cycles will reduce the burden on respondents. The telephone surveys will be administered at various times during the three-year assessment period, depending on the progress of the ICTP projects. In addition, a respondent will complete the entire survey only once.

B3. Methods to Maximize Response Rates and Deal with Issues of Non-Response

Although some turnover in employee positions at the grantee and partner agencies is expected, all respondents are well established law enforcement and public safety agencies and have received substantial federal funding to implement their ICTP projects. The COPS Office will provide the interviewers with the most current grantee contact information available and will assist them, as needed, throughout the assessment period in identifying changes in key grantee personnel.

An initial announcement of the assessment surveys will be sent to respondents explaining the assessment survey’s purpose, process, and expected benefits and products. Via email and telephone, appointments will be set to conduct the survey interviews at dates and times convenient for the respondents. The survey questions will be shared via e-mail with respondents prior to the telephone interviews to provide for adequate preparation. The interviewers will be experienced public safety professionals and researchers who have been thoroughly trained in the assessment protocols and are knowledgeable about the subject matter and the ICTP grant projects. They will have reviewed all project documentation provided by the COPS Office on a project before initiating an interview.

Every reasonable effort will be made by email and phone to arrange and conduct assessment survey interviews with the respondents, and a high degree of participation is anticipated. Contact logs will be maintained, and the COPS Office will assist as appropriate in following up with any grantees that may decline to participate.

B4. Tests of procedures or methods to be undertaken

Initial interviews with six projects will serve as a test of the assessment survey instrument. These projects will represent diverse types of communications technologies, partnership structures, and geographic settings. The instrument and/or process will then be refined as indicated to minimize the burden on respondents and improve utility of the collection.

B5. Individuals consulted on statistical aspects of the design and organization/persons collecting and analyzing the data.

The COPS Office did not require consultation on statistical aspects of the design because no sampling methods will be employed. Respondents will be the universe of COPS ICTP grantees from Fiscal Year 2003-2006.

The Institute for Law and Justice, Inc. (ILJ), a non-profit public safety research organization, was awarded a cooperative agreement with the COPS Office to conduct the data collection and analysis. Contact information for ILJ and the ILJ personnel who will be responsible for actually collecting and/or analyzing the information are as follows:

Institute for Law and Justice, Inc.

1018 Duke Street

Alexandria, VA 22314

703-684-5300

Edward F. Connors, ILJ President (ICTP assessment project director)

Dr. Tom McEwen, ILJ Director of Research

Dr. Elizabeth Groff, ILJ Senior Research Associate

Barbara Webster, ILJ Senior Writer/Principal Research Associate

In addition, the following individuals are expected to assist ILJ in collecting and/or analyzing information in their respective areas of expertise:

Margaret O. Nyswonger, president and CEO; and Josef M. Graf, Senior Consultant, Stealth Network Communications, Inc.

Tom Seamon, president, Hallcrest Systems, Inc., and an ILJ Senior Consultant

Peter Ohlhausen, president, Ohlhausen Research, Inc., and an ILJ Senior Consultant

David T. Endicott, Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) assessment team leader and an ILJ Senior Consultant

Ed Appel, president, Joint Council on Information Age Crime and an ILJ Senior Consultant