Appendix F Lead Letter to LEAs

Appendix F

Lead Letter to LEAs

NHTSA LETTERHEAD

DATE

Name

Agency

Address

City, State, ZIP

Dear {SAMPLE CONTACT},

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), with assistance from RTI International (RTI) and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) is conducting its Survey of Law Enforcement Officers/Agencies Attitudes Towards and Resources for Traffic Safety Enforcement. This study will collect critical information about current and past attitudes towards traffic safety enforcement, as well as determine the strengths and weaknesses associated with merging traffic enforcement with other enforcement divisions, and allow NHTSA to assess key variables that have implications for intervention and outreach activities.

Due to economic challenges and resource constraints, a number of law enforcement agencies have merged traffic enforcement with other enforcement divisions in order to reduce costs. It is important to gain an understanding of how attitudes and resources have shifted in recent years in order to determine what NHTSA can do to enhance traffic safety.

With the help and cooperation of partners in law enforcement, NHTSA’s work over the past decades has significantly improved law enforcement strategies and traffic safety. However, continued effort is crucial to extending and maintaining these improvements.

I respectfully request your agency’s participation in this study.

Should you be willing to participate in the study, a point-of-contact (POC) will be needed in your agency that can help RTI with the following project tasks:

1. Provide the team with a sample of approximately X line officers who will each be invited to complete a web-based survey, estimated at 10 minutes to complete.

2. Provide the team with a sample of approximately X supervisors.

3. Assist in coordinating a telephone interview with you or a designated

Command-level staff member. The interview is estimated to take 30 minutes.

4. Assist in the collection of administrative data. The anticipated time it will take to

collect this data is 15- 30 minutes and can be delegated to any of your staff.

A member of the RTI project team will contact you within the next few days to answer any questions you may have about this project, seek your agency’s participation, and determine your agency’s POC with the project team.

Following this initial call, RTI will conduct a follow up call with the POC to obtain full lists of line officers and supervisors in order to conduct a random sampling of your agency’s officers. Each officer selected will receive a personalized letter describing the importance of the study and containing detailed information on how to complete the survey online. RTI will monitor data collection on an ongoing basis and re-contact the POC regularly to encourage non-responding officers to complete their surveys.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Sincerely,

Jeff Michael, Associate Administrator