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Prenotification Experiment in a 

Survey of Law Enforcement 

Agencies

Ryan Weber, RTI International

Tim Smith, RTI International

Harley Rohloff, RTI International

Elizabeth Davis, Bureau of Justice Statistics
Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed in this presentation are those of the speakers and do not 

necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
Project Background

o Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies 

(CSLLEA)

• Administered by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) every 4 years 

since 1986

• Includes every publicly-funded government entity that employs at least 

one full-time equivalent sworn law enforcement officer (~20,000 

agencies)

• Typically begin data collection with an invitation letter and email (no 

prenotification)

• Typically achieve 90% response rate

o 2022 CSLLEA Collection

• RTI serves as data collection agent

• September 20, 2022, through September 11, 2023
CSLLEA Questionnaire

• 8 questions

• 30-minute burden

• Multi-mode (Web, PAPI, 

Phone)

• Data collected include 

operating budgets, policing 

functions performed by the 

agency and the number of 

sworn and civilian personnel 
Experiment: Research Questions

o Will a prenote increase response rate?

o Is a prenote worth the cost?

o Will a prenote work in an establishment survey environment?
Experiment

o Experiment focused on local police and sheriff’s offices (two largest 

agency types)

o Randomly selected 250 cases each from: small local police, large local 

police, small sheriff’s offices and large sheriff’s offices

o Prenote group received a letter 1 month before survey launch

Agency Type Size (FTE) from Frame Number on Frame

Control Prenote

Local Police

All 12,220 500

Large (FTE > 99.9) 401 250

Small (FTE <= 99.9) 11,819 250

Sheriff’s Office

All 2,563 500

Large (FTE > 99.9) 134 250

Small (FTE <= 99.9) 2,429 250

TOTAL 14,783 1,000
Prenotification Contents
Prenotification Contents
Results: Response Rate

No differences are statistically significant

Response Rate

Agency Type Size Control 

Unweighted

Control 

Weighted

Prenote 

Unweighted

Overall 86.9% 89.6% 88.3%

Local Police Large 94.8% * 95.6%

Small 86.7% * 84.2%

Sheriff’s Office Large 90.2% * 87.5%

Small 86.7% * 85.5%
Results: Response Time

*p< 0.0001

Average Response Time

Agency Type Size Control Prenote

Overall 86 Days 80 Days

Police and 

Sheriff’s 

Offices

Large 76 Days 73 Days

Small 86 Days* 88 Days*
Results: Ineligible Cases
Conclusions

o No significant effect on response rate

• Large number of local police departments cancelled out any effect 

o No significant improvement in response speed

o Did not weed out ineligible cases

o Smaller agencies were slower to respond regardless

o No efficiency gains

o Not worth the cost
Discussion

o Prenotifications may not be as effective in establishment surveys, or at 

least in surveys of this population. 

o Why?

• Perhaps the number of contacts is not as important as thought, or at least 

contacts prior to survey launch

• So long as agency received the materials, it may not matter to whom they’re 

addressed 
Thank you

Contact: Ryan Weber| email: rweber@rti.org