NCIC_N3G PRA Submission Part B

PRA Submission Form Part B

B.1 Describe the potential respondent universe and selection methods.

In consultation with, and guidance from the CJIS Advisory Process, the CJIS Division proposes to conduct a series of group interviews, or focus groups, with National Crime Information Center (NCIC) subject matter experts and NCIC users within each state in order to explore the requirements that would be desired in an upgrade to the NCIC system, or NCIC 3^rd Generation (N3G).

The participants of the focus groups will be comprised of a variety of entities selected to represent the diverse perspectives of the law enforcement community. Within each state, there will be one to two focus groups. The goal with the first focus group is to gather information from the CJIS Systems Agency (CSA) directly, and the second focus group would include representatives from local agency users of NCIC. The recommended composition for the focus group sessions is as follows:

Entities		Number of Organizations	Participants per Organization	Maximum N	Population Represented
States	CSA	50	3	150	2.5+ Million Users of the NCIC System
	Local Users	50+	12	600
National Organizations/U.S. Territories/Affiliated Users		3-13	10	130
Total		113		880

Because of the interest surrounding NCIC from the law enforcement community and the flexible nature of selecting participants for focus groups, the CJIS Division anticipates response rates for the collection as a whole to be near 100%.

B.2 Describe the procedures for the collection of information:

The CJIS Division proposes to conduct focus group sessions with each of the 50 states, select U.S. Territories and a number of national organizations. The CJIS Division will work closely with each CSA to schedule the site visit, providing guidelines for a maximum number of participants and the composition of the respondents for each CSA. The CSA will select the appropriate participants based on the state’s individual needs. The CJIS Division plans to schedule the focus group interviews, to the maximum extent feasible, at times/locations which are the least impactful to the states, such as during regularly scheduled conferences or training events where the respondents would already be attending. In addition to all 50 state CSAs, the CJIS Division has identified national organizations that represent significant groups of NCIC stakeholders. The national organizations will be engaged, if necessary, during the later phases of the interview process to supplement information obtained from the state CSAs.

The CJIS Systems Officer (CSO) for each CSA will serve as the primary liaison with the CJIS Division to identify the most appropriate participants within their agency, as well as within the local NCIC user community under their purview. The actual selection of respondents will be left to the discretion of the CSO. To assist in this selection, the CJIS Division has identified categories of NCIC users that will be communicated to each CSA to help ensure a diverse representation of NCIC users is considered when comprising the attendees of each focus group session.

Below is a breakdown of the intended focus group composition:

• 50 States – 15 total respondents from each state

  • CSA – 3

    • CSO – Designated Agency Point of Contact

    • IT SME

    • Policy SME

  • Local Users – 12 selected by CSA, considering, but not limited to the following representation

    • Frontline law enforcement officers

    • Investigators

    • Dispatchers

    • IT staff for local systems

    • Large volume users (metropolitan agencies)

    • Rural/Low volume users

    • Tribal Users

    • Federal criminal justice practitioners using state systems

• 5-10 National Organizations, U.S. Territories, Affiliated Users (as needed) - 10 NCIC SMEs each

Examples include:

• International Association of Chiefs of Police

• National Sheriff’s Association

• National Center for State Courts

• Integrated Justice Information Systems Institute

• American Probation and Parole Association

• Major County Sheriff’s Association

• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

• Nlets

• Guam

• U.S. Virgin Islands

In consultation with external members of the CJIS Advisory Process, the CJIS Division developed an interview guide (see attached) that will be provided to each CSA at least one month ahead of the proposed interview date. The interview guide consists of open-ended questions with additional topic probes, which will enable the CJIS Division to conduct semi-structured group interviews with the CSA staff and local NCIC users. The CJIS Division also developed a pre-interview assessment to obtain relevant information regarding the CSAs’ and local agencies’ use of NCIC, workflows incorporating NCIC, and general thoughts of the current NCIC system. The pre-interview assessment is intended to provide the research teams information in advance of the visit to help narrow focus of the discussions and identify additional probing questions specific to each CSA and local agency.

1. Each CSA will be provided the interview guide and pre-interview assessment at least one month in advance of the focus group interviews. The CSO for each CSA will be requested to complete the pre-interview questions and provide the responses to the CJIS Division in advance of the interviews.

2. The interview guides are intended to be discussion points for more in-depth conversations regarding the individual needs of each CSA and/or local agency.

   1. Facilitation of group discussions with the CSA staff and local agencies will yield more creative responses, and help identify more obscure and/or future system requirements that could apply to the entire criminal justice community.

   2. Small group sessions within each CSA (3) and local users (12) will help focus the dialogue to NCIC-specific requirements and produce an atmosphere conducive to creative thinking.

3. The information provided by the participants will be collected and analyzed as follows:

   1. There will be 6 research teams conducting the focus groups for the study.

   2. There will be two main roles within each research team: facilitator and scribe.

   3. The facilitator will be responsible for using the interview guide to elicit discussion and offer probes to guide and stimulate discussion that is in keeping with the goals of the collection.

   4. A designated scribe will comprehensively document each of the requirements gathering sessions, including both verbal and nonverbal communication of the participants.

   5. The information collected will be entered into an appropriate software package that will allow for qualitative coding at the CJIS Division.

   6. The CJIS Division envisions three phases to the series of focus groups:

      1. The first phase will consist of the four most diverse states that will provide a quick, but comprehensive view of the results that the original interview guide is providing. After these four site visits, the research teams will analyze the results for emerging themes and produce a coding guide that will be used for future focus groups.

      2. A second phase will consist of approximately 20 to 22 states or entities that will be roughly representative of a variety of viewpoints. As these focus groups will be conducted by several research teams, the information will be continually catalogued and coded rather than waiting until all focus groups are completed for this phase. After the completion of the second phase, the coded results will be analyzed for the recurring and common themes.

      3. A final third phase will consist of the remaining states or entities in the study. After the analysis of the second phase results, a revised interview guide will include additional questions and probes that will be used to validate the themes identified in phases one and two.

   7. At the conclusion of the study, the key words, common themes, and unique requirements identified during the requirements gathering phase will be used to author detailed scenarios and concepts demonstrating the operational application which will be sent through the CJIS Advisory Process for review of the CSAs prior to system development.

4. It is anticipated that the focus groups will last for approximately 2 hours. Early tests of the interview guide revealed that there was a subset of participants that were interested in providing detailed information on requirements for the new system. When this situation arose, the focus group would often extend to approximately four hours. In order to prevent focus groups that extend beyond the intended 2 hours, the interview guide will be constructed to allow for the facilitator to manage the progression of the discussion. Participants will be encouraged to save the more detailed and specific requirements for the end of the focus group. The research team will continue to document the information that will be provided. However, the participants that do not wish to be a part of the more detailed discussion will be able to easily excuse themselves.

The research methodology proposed is meant to provide the nuanced information that qualitative studies are best geared for. As such, the CJIS Division does not anticipate a quantitative analysis that would result in tabulations or estimations related to the findings.

B.3 Describe methods to maximize response rates and to deal with issues of non-response.

The study will use two focus groups for each state: one with the staff of the CSA and a second comprising a representative group of local agency users. Through advance work with the Advisory Policy Board process, the CJIS Division has received assurances of every state CSA’s willingness to participate.

For the local agency user focus groups, the CJIS Division will maximize participation by using the CSA as the primary point of contact. The CSA will identify the agencies that both will provide the representative viewpoint sought for the study and will be willing to participate in the process. If a local agency originally identified by the CSA declines participation, the methodology allows for the selection of another comparable agency or entity. The guidance provided to each CSA concerning the types of agencies and entities requested for participation will mitigate any selection bias in the group of local agency focus groups.

B.4 Describe any test of procedures or methods to be undertaken.

1. The CJIS Division engaged the APB’s N3G Task Force to perform comprehensive reviews of the interview guide to ensure the most relevant questions were included to initiate meaningful discussions.

2. NCIC stakeholders within the FBI were used to refine the interview guide and requirements gathering processes, to include actual focus group sessions to mimic what will be provided to the state CSAs.

3. The CJIS Division conducted requirements gathering sessions with 10 Federal CSAs which ensured the methods proposed in the N3G PRA submission were sound and produced useful and meaningful results in the least impactful manner.

4. The information gathered through the internal and federal sessions provided useful information that was input into the database and demonstrated the diversity of responses from each agency, but also revealed common themes, all of which can be used to identify requirements for the new system.

5. This method of gathering requirements has been tested for most of our major system upgrades.

B.5 Provide the name and phone number of individuals consulted on statistical aspects of the design and the name of the agency unit (etc.) who will actually collect and/or analyze the information from the agency.

Statisticians/methodologists:

Ms. Cynthia Barnett-Ryan, 304-625-3576

Mr. James H. Noonan, 304-625-2927

Unit managing collection/information analysis:

FBI CJIS Division, Law Enforcement Support Section (LESS), NCIC Operations and Policy Unit (NOPU)

Senior Executive Staff – Executive Project Manager

Mr. John H. Derbas, Section Chief, LESS, 304-625-3690

Project Manager

Mr. Todd C. Commodore, Unit Chief, NOPU, 304-625-2836

Facilitators/Senior NCIC Subject Matter Experts (GS 13-14 Analysts)

Ms. Buffy M. Bonafield, Management and Program Analyst (MAPA), NOPU

Ms. Kimberly K. Lough, MAPA , NOPU

Ms. Stephanie L. Manson, Supervisory MAPA, NOPU

Mr. Travis L. Olson, Supervisory MAPA, NOPU

NCIC Subject Matter Experts

Mr. Fred O. Law, MAPA, NOPU

Mr. Gary E. Davis, MAPA, NOPU

Mr. Zachary P. Hartzell, MAPA, NOPU

Ms. Dixie S. Hornick, MAPA, NOPU

Ms. Cara Matheny, MAPA, NOPU

Mr. Patsy T. Sabatelli, MAPA, NOPU

Ms. Lori A. Heldreth, MAPA, NOPU

Ms. Melisa L. Watson, MAPA, NOPU

Ms. Joyce R. Wilkerson, MAPA, NOPU