The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is tasked with collecting objective, timely, and high-quality data from U.S. law enforcement agencies (LEAs). BJS conducts several data collection efforts to achieve this goal, largely relying on a series of establishment surveys since 1987. Their primary LEA collection is the Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (CSLEA), through which BJS develops and maintains the Law Enforcement Agency Roster (LEAR), from which samples of LEAs are selected for other data collections, such as the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics Core (LEMAS-Core).
In recent years, BJS has revised the LEMAS-Core to better reflect LEA data needs and to reduce burden. The LEMAS-Core collects information on topics such as agency staffing, operations, budget, policies, technology, and equipment. Outside of these critical dimensions, BJS has recognized the need to conduct periodic data collections on additional topics critical to practitioners, researchers, and policymakers, which are examined through LEMAS supplemental surveys.
The 2023 LEMAS Supplement, referred to as the LEMAS Post-Academy Training and Officer Wellness (PATOW) Survey, focuses on two topics: post-academy training and agency resources and responses to officer mental health issues, including officer suicide. The survey launched in November 2023 and as of April 2024 had not yet achieved its target response rate. RTI proposes additional phone, mail, and email outreach to nonresponding agencies to increase submission rates and to responding agencies to increase overall data quality. RTI will implement a tactical nonresponse follow up strategy based on agency prior reporting history, size, and sampling weight or stratum. These additional efforts will further the successes of LEMAS PATOW to date and increase BJS’s understanding of LEA post-academy training and officer wellness practices.
