Feb 15 -- The Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics invites comments to OMB by March 17, 2022 regarding approval of the 2022 Police Public Contact Survey (PPCS).
BJS requests clearance to conduct the 2022 Police Public Contact Survey (PPCS) as a supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to collect information about the nature and outcomes (e.g., arrest, ticket/warning) of the public’s contacts with the police. Contact with the police refers to voluntary contacts, such as residents seeking help or assistance from the police, and involuntary contacts, such as police approaching residents during a street or traffic stop. The last PPCS was administered from January 2020 through June 2020. The goal of the collection is to report national statistics that provide a better understanding of the types, frequency, and outcomes of contacts between the police and the public, public perceptions of police behavior during the contact, and the conditions under which force may be threatened or used.
The PPCS addresses timely issues related to race and policing by obtaining data from respondents on the demographic attributes of both the persons who had contact and the officer(s) with whom they had contact. The PPCS data reveal that there are differences in perceptions of the legitimacy of police behavior across subgroups and types of police contact. Understanding public perceptions of the legitimacy of police can be useful for explaining victim reporting of crime to the police, which, in turn, is related to reductions in violent crime rates. Police contacts with residents also represent a potential opportunity to build personal and public trust in the criminal justice system and enhance community efficacy and safety.
The PPCS is unique in its ability to comprehensively provide these types of information and it is:
the only national collection on police contact from the perspective of residents;
the only national data collection that measures the full scope of nonlethal force used by police;
the only national data collection that collects measures of police legitimacy;
the only national data collection that can be used to assess racial disparities in contact with police and outcomes of contact with police;
and the only data collection that can provide national estimates of the rate of searches during traffic stops and the prevalence of stop and frisk practices.
The PPCS also informs understanding of resident conduct toward police in resident-police interactions.
The information generated by the prior waves of the PPCS has been used to inform research and policy discussions on many salient topics related to police—police use of force and excessive force, racial differences in the number and characteristics of traffic stops and searches, resident perceptions of the legitimacy of police contacts, and residents’ likelihood of contacting the police again in the future. Data on these topics are fundamental to police efforts to build relations with their communities, encourage residents to report criminal activity, and reduce violent crime. Because the information is provided by residents, these data are an independent source for systematic knowledge about the behavior of the police and resident perceptions of police that is not dependent on official police records or self-reports from law enforcement officers.
PPCS webpage:
https://bjs.ojp.gov/data-collection/police-public-contact-survey-ppcs
PPCS submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202202-1121-001 Click IC List for data collection instruments, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation.
FR notice:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2022-03148
For AEA members wishing to provide comments to OMB, "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" is available at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806