NIJ Innovations in Measuring 

Community Perceptions Challenge

June 6, 2023 | 2:00 PM ET

The webinar will begin shortly
Important Information for Today’s Webinar 

• Having difficulties hearing? If listening via computer, click the arrow

next to the Mute/Unmute icon to make adjustments. Still can’t hear? 

Click the arrow to have Webex call your phone directly.

• WebEx features — Chat, Media Viewer, and Q&A

• Live-captioning — Click on the Multimedia Viewer to access.

• Need technical assistance? Select and send your issue to the Host.

• Questions about the presentation? Submit questions at any time during the 

presentation by using the Q&A box and selecting All Panelists.

• A transcript of the webinar will be made available on the NIJ website.
Today’s Webinar 

• Introductory remarks by NIJ Director Nancy La Vigne

• Motivation 

• Core characteristics of methods

• Structure of the challenge 

• Prizes

• Judging criteria

• Submission requirements

• Eligibility

• Question and answer period
Motivation

• Consistent, rigorous measurement of community perceptions provides critical 

feedback to police, city managers, and community members

• Probability surveys difficult and expensive

• Nonprobability surveys difficult to establish representativeness

Goal: 

Identify innovative survey and big data methods for measuring community 

perceptions that are representative, cost effective, accurate across 

microgeographies, and capable of being administered frequently.
Core characteristics of proposed methods

• Representative

• Cost effective

• Accurate across microgeographies

• Allow frequent assessment

• Scalable for use in jurisdictions of various sizes 
Category 1: Survey Category 2: Data

Probability 

Procedural justice-Respect

Fear of crime

Police accountability

Bias

Community policing

Nonprobability 

Procedural justice-Respect

Fear of crime

Police accountability

Bias

Community policing

Overall 

competition 

Procedural justice-Respect

Fear of crime

Police accountability

Bias

Community policing

Individual 

construct 

competition 

Procedural justice-Respect

Fear of crime

Police accountability

Bias

Community policing

Structure of the challenge 
Prizes • A total of $175,000 is available; $87.5k for each category

• Prize structure: Category 1 – Probability Survey; Category 1 – Nonprobability 

Survey; Category 2 – Data (overall competition)

• First prize: $25k

• Second prize: $10k

• Third prize: $5k

• Fourth and fifth prizes: $2.5k 

• Prize structure: Category 2: Data (individual constructs)

• First prize: $5k

• Second prize: $2.5k

• Third prize: $1k

• Fourth and fifth prizes: $0.5k 
Judging entries

• Demonstrate appropriate knowledge of applicable datasets and methods. 

• Provide a detailed overview of the proposed method and how it satisfies each of 

the required criteria.

• Evidence that the proposed method has been used successfully in analogous 

scenarios will strengthen proposals.
Judging Category 1 entries: Surveys 

• Representativeness: Include specific process and outcome measures

• Cost: Describe deployment costs. Provide a cost per capita.

• Accuracy across microgeographies: Identify accuracy at smallest geography.

• Capable of frequent administration: Identify the length of time and number of 

resources necessary to deploy the survey.

• Scalability: Describe deployment in jurisdictions of varying populations and 

sizes.

• Human subjects protection/privacy: Address privacy concerns
Judging Category 2 entries: Data

• Representativeness: How well do the proxy measure(s) represent the constructs 

across the entire community?

• Cost: Clear and specific description of all costs related to deploying the method. 

• Accuracy across microgeographies: Clearly identify smallest geography and how 

accuracy will be established.

• Sustainability: Identify the method’s ability to support continuous or frequent 

data collection. 

• Scalability: Describe how the method can be deployed in jurisdictions of varying 

populations and demographic structures.

• Human subjects protection/privacy: Address privacy and surveillance concerns 
Submission requirements

• Entries submitted here: https://nij.ojp.gov/funding/innovations-measuringcommunity-perceptions-challenge-submission-form

• Entries due by 11:59pm Eastern Time on July 31, 2023

• Each entry should include the following components:

• Team roster (even if an individual entrant)

• Narrative 

• Appendix

• Bibliography

• Budget
Eligibility

• Disciplines outside of criminal justice or involving interdisciplinary teams

• Practitioners, researchers, public and private entities, research laboratories, 

startup companies, students, and others.

• Competition is open to:

1. Individual residents at least 13 year of age

2. Teams of eligible individuals

3. Corporations or other legal entities domiciled in the 50 United States, District of 

Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam
Questions?

Please enter your questions into the Q&A box

Send to All Panelists