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LEAP FAQs
What information does the LEAP survey collect?
The LEAP survey asks questions on personnel, budget, hiring and retention, and data use. However, data collected from the LEAP survey will not be used to produce statistics on agency operations. As a pilot program, no data submitted by your agency will used outside of BJS and any public report will only use aggregated results without identifying individual agencies or responses. Instead, the LEAP survey will be used to design future law enforcement surveys.
How is the LEAP survey different?
The LEAP is a shorter survey, which takes only 40 minutes to complete. While the LEAP survey will not be used to produce public statistics on agency operations, the LEAP survey data will assist BJS for developing future surveys that may be both more timely and less burdensome to law enforcement agencies.
Why is the LEAP survey important?
If successful, future iterations of the LEAP survey would facilitate more frequent publication of law enforcement data. This would allow agencies, researchers, and policy makers to understand law enforcement operations at local, county, state, and national levels. Simultaneously, BJS understands that law enforcement agencies have limited time to participate in surveys. The goal of the LEAP survey is to identify how to balance these competing demands and create a new, streamlined data collection design that provides up-to-date data, while minimizing the burden on law enforcement agencies.
What will I be asked to do?
The chief executive will be asked to designate a staff member to complete the survey (i.e., point of contact). The agency point of contact will be given information on how to access the online survey (or request a paper survey if desired). The website will be secure and will allow respondents to save and close the survey at any time. The survey can be reopened later to enter or edit responses until the final responses are submitted. Agencies will also be given a paper copy of the survey if they prefer to submit the survey by mail, email, or fax.
CSLLEA FAQs
What is CSLLEA?
The Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (CSLLEA) is part of the Law Enforcement Core Statistics (LECS) program which coordinates a group of law enforcement agency data collection programs conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). BJS has administered the CSLLEA regularly since 1986. The primary purpose of the CSLLEA is to serve as a complete enumeration of law enforcement agencies in the United States.
Why is CSLLEA important?
Law enforcement agencies face unique challenges in areas such as staffing, number and types of functions performed, and budget allocation. The CSLLEA is the only national data collection that asks every law enforcement agency in the nation about these issues. These data are used by various stakeholders in order to better understand the current state of law enforcement. Additionally, the data can be used by law enforcement agencies in order to compare themselves to other similar agencies in the U.S.
What information does the CSLLEA collect?
The CSLLEA collects information on government authority, budget, functions, and personnel. The information is used to provide national, state and local estimates for all law enforcement agencies in the U.S. This data is also used to pull samples for other BJS data collections.
Who should complete the CSLLEA?
Any law enforcement agency operating with public funds that employs the equivalent of one full-time sworn officer (at least 2 part-time officers) should complete the CSLLEA.
Agencies meeting any of the following would not complete the CSLLEA: that are no longer in existence, contracted or outsourced all law enforcement services to another agency, employed only part-time officers and the total combined hours worked for these officers averaged less than 35 hours per week, all officers in the agency were unpaid volunteers, all officers in the agency were paid via fee-for-service and not salary, agency was private or agency was operated by the Federal government.
CLETA FAQs
Why is CLETA important?
The CLETA is the only systematic data collection that produces national estimates on the characteristics of academies that train all state and local law enforcement officers. Law enforcement agencies, policy makers, and researchers will use the CLETA data to better understand and respond to the training needs of law enforcement personnel.
What information does CLETA collect?
In addition to general information describing each academy, the CLETA collects detailed information on personnel, resources, core curriculum, trainees, policies and practices of state and local law enforcement training academies.
What is the definition of basic law enforcement training for the purposes of CLETA?
Basic law enforcement training is defined as the mandatory training for newly appointed or elected law enforcement officers as required by federal or state statute, rule, or regulation, depending upon the jurisdiction of the agency hiring the new officer.
SLEPS FAQs
What is SLEPS?
The Survey of Law Enforcement Personnel in Schools (SLEPS) is a two-phase research effort to examine the prevalence and role of law enforcement officers in schools. The U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is working with RTI International (RTI), a not-for-profit research organization, to conduct this important data collection. During the first phase, law enforcement agencies (LEAs) complete an agency-level survey and provide a roster of their officers working in schools. BJS and RTI will use these rosters to draw a sample of School Resource Officers (SROs) for the second phase, which is an officer-level survey.
Why is SLEPS important?
At this time, there is no national-level information on the roles, functions, and regular activities of police officers assigned to schools nor on the infrastructure of law enforcement agencies that supports these officers. SLEPS will provide this information which is critical to inform research and policy on effective school resource officer (SRO) programs.
What information does SLEPS collect?
The LEA survey collects general information including (1) LEA agency characteristics; (2) SRO program characteristics; (3) SRO policies and assigned responsibilities; (4) SRO recruitment, training, and supervision; (5) SRO staffing; and (6) sworn SRO training topics and activities performed. The final piece of the agency-level survey is the rostering form, which asks for a list of sworn SROs.
The SRO survey collects officer-level information including (1) SRO experience and characteristics; (2) SRO training; (3) SRO activities; and (4) characteristics of the schools that SROs are assigned to.
What is the definition of an SRO for the purposes of SLEPS?
A sworn law enforcement officer who is assigned to work in any public K-12 school.
LEMAS FAQs
Why is LEMAS important?
LEMAS is the only data collection of law enforcement agencies that gathers nationally representative information about agencies on key factors like personnel, policies, and agency activities. LEMAS data are widely used by researchers, policy makers and law enforcement agencies to understand law enforcement at local, county, state and national levels.
What information does the LEMAS collect?
The LEMAS core collects important information on personnel, expenditures and pay, operations, equipment, computers and information systems, and policies and procedures. This information is used to create national estimates for all law enforcement agencies in the U.S. The LEMAS supplements will collect in-depth information on a specific topical area. The first supplement focuses on body-worn camera usage.
Why might I receive multiple LEMAS surveys?
The LEMAS is moving to a new core + topical supplement model. Topical supplements will cover emerging issues in law enforcement and will change over time. You may have participated in the first LEMAS topical supplement which covered body-worn camera usage. You may have also been invited to participate in the 2016 LEMAS core. Data collection concluded on the 2020 LEMAS in the fall of 2021 and a LEMAS supplement is coming soon.
Do I need to complete the LEMAS if I recently completed a different LEMAS survey?
Yes! The LEMAS core and supplements are critically important to understanding characteristics, policies and procedures of law enforcement agencies across the country. Each agency that was selected to participate is crucial – each agency's responses are important. We need responses from all selected agencies for each survey sent to ensure that the results are representative of law enforcement agencies across the U.S.
SCLEA FAQs
What is SCLEA?
The Survey of Campus Law Enforcement Agencies (SCLEA) is the only nationally representative survey of campus law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and includes both private and public universities and agencies with sworn and non-sworn personnel. The survey gathers information on agency staffing, operations, budget, policies, responsibilities, and equipment. The results are used to provide an overview of campus LEAs to assess their readiness to respond to the challenges unique to campus security.
How are the data used?
The data are made available for use to the public and can be used by researchers and policymakers conducting research on campus policing. BJS also publishes a report on findings from the data, providing an overview of campus LEAs to assess their readiness to respond to the challenges unique to campus security. Additionally, as a census, the 2021 SCLEA confirms and updates the universe of campus law enforcement agencies.
How were agencies selected?
SCLEA is a census of all campus law enforcement agencies from campuses with over 1,000 full-time students in the United States, meaning that all agencies meeting the criteria were asked to participate.
What information does SCLEA collect?
The survey gathers information on agency staffing, operations, budget, policies, responsibilities, and equipment.
LEMAS PATOW FAQs
What is the LEMAS PATOW survey?
The LEMAS PATOW survey is an important part of BJS’s Law Enforcement Core Statistics (LECS) program, which includes law enforcement agency surveys conducted by BJS to understand personnel, policies, and procedures of state, county and local law enforcement agencies in the United States. The LEMAS PATOW survey includes questions about resources provided to staff with a focus on post-academy training and wellness services.
What is the difference between the LEMAS Core and LEMAS PATOW survey?
The LEMAS is moving to a new core plus topical supplement model. The LEMAS Core is a survey focused on long-term issues in policing revolving around staffing, strategies and tactics, and organizational structure. The core survey is administered every four years. The LEMAS supplements will cover a single topic pertaining to specific issues in law enforcement and will change over time. The most recent LEMAS supplement was the 2016 Body-Worn Camera Supplement and now BJS is implementing the 2023 Post-Academy Training and Officer Wellness (PATOW) Supplement. These surveys are critically important to understanding characteristics, policies, and procedures of law enforcement agencies across the country.
What will I be asked to do?
The chief executive of your agency will be asked to designate a staff member to complete the survey on your agency’s behalf. This agency point of contact will be given information on how to access the online survey (or request a paper survey if desired). The website will be secure and will allow respondents to save and close the survey at any time. The survey can be reopened later to enter or edit responses until the final responses are submitted.
Is it mandatory?
Your participation is voluntary but your response to this survey is critical to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics’ effort to produce national estimates of post-academy training and officer wellness services. Your agency cannot be replaced.