Police Public Contact Survey Pretesting Plan

The Census Bureau plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). The objective of this research is to conduct cognitive testing of the survey content for the 2014 Police-Public Contact Survey (PPCS), a CAPI supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The purpose of this testing is to test questionnaire concepts added or revised since the 2012 survey and understand how they work. These include the following:

• The screener questions (Q3 series) were revised to include questions regarding how many times each type of contact with the police occurred during the prior 12 months, which will allow BJS to generate prevalence rates of police contact.

• Questions were also added in this series regarding whether involuntary contacts with the police resulted in an arrest. This will allow BJS to estimate the percentage of respondents stopped in traffic or street stops who were arrested.

• The eligibility for questions regarding police use of force was broadened to include respondents for whom the most recent contact with police involved a traffic accident, an arrest, or another type of police initiated contact, even if respondents only had one such contact. This skip pattern change will allow BJS to generate a more accurate rate of police use-of-force.

• Questions were added regarding whether respondents for whom the most recent contact with the police was a voluntary contact experienced police use-of-force and whether respondents who reported more than one contact experienced police use-of-force. This addition will allow BJS to compute an overall rate of police use-of-force.

• The race and Hispanic origin questions regarding police officers were revised to match questions recently added in the core NCVS. This will allow for the identification of officer race when more than one officer is present.

• Questions pertaining to the gender of police officers were added, which will allow BJS to collect gender information that is increasingly relevant given the growing number of women entering law enforcement.

Between August and October of 2013, specially-trained Field Representatives will use concurrent think-aloud techniques and probing questions with a paper version of the CAPI questionnaire. Two rounds of testing will be conducted, with a maximum of 15 interviews per round. We will be targeting respondents who have had contact with the police in the last 12 months. To the maximum extent possible, we will attempt to interview respondents of varying ages, genders and races. We will use a multi-pronged strategy to recruit the respondents needed for this study, such as posting ads in free local newspapers, distributing flyers, contacting local associations, setting up recruiting tables at local establishments, and using personal networks.

All interviews will be conducted in the Washington DC metropolitan area at the Census Bureau’s cognitive laboratory, offices of community associations, and locations convenient to respondents. A copy of the questionnaire with the cognitive testing protocol is attached.

Cognitive interviews will be tape-recorded, with the participants' permission, to facilitate a summary of the results. All participants will be informed that their response is voluntary and that the information they provide is confidential. Respondents will receive $40 for their participation.

The estimated time for completion of each cognitive interview is one hours. Thus, the estimated burden for this research is 30 hours.

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and study design is:

Terry DeMaio

Center for Survey Measurement

U.S. Census Bureau

Room 5K319

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-4894

[email protected]

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