DOI: 10.3886/icpsr06506
title: Survey of Drug Enforcement Tactics of Law Enforcement Agencies in the United States, 1992
title: Archival Version

description: This program evaluation study is intended to capture fully
 the universe of drug enforcement tactics available in the United
 States and to assess trends in drug enforcement. The primary objective
 of the study was to learn more about the application of anti-drug
 tactics by police: What tactics are used by police to address drug use
 problems? How widely are these tactics used? What new and innovative
 tactics are being developed and applied by police? What anti-drug
 tactics are most effective or show some promise of effectiveness? To
 answer these questions, state and local law enforcement agencies
 serving populations of 50,000 or more were mailed surveys. The survey
 was administered to both patrol and investigation units in the law
 enforcement agencies. This dual pattern of administration was intended
 to capture the extent to which the techniques of one unit had been
 applied by another. The questionnaire consisted primarily of
 dichotomous survey questions on anti-drug tactics that could be
 answered "yes" or "no". In each of the 14 categories of tactics,
 respondents were encouraged to add other previously unidentified or
 unspecified tactics in use in their agencies. These open-ended
 questions were designed to insure that a final list of anti-drug
 tactics would be truly comprehensive and capture the universe of drug
 tactics in use. In addition to questions regarding structural
 dimensions of anti-drug tactics, the survey also collected
 standardized information about the law enforcement agency, including
 agency size, demographic characteristics and size of the agency's
 service population, and a description of the relative size and nature
of the jurisdiction's drug problems.
description: The primary objective of this study was to learn
 more about the application of anti-drug tactics by police: What
 tactics are used by police to address drug problems? How widely are
 these tactics used? What new and innovative tactics are being
 developed and applied by police? What anti-drug tactics are most
 effective or show some promise of effectiveness? Answers to these
 questions were intended to provide useful information to police
 practitioners and to provide some direction to policymakers who must
 make decisions about the allocation of resources, organization and
 deployment of various units, development of collaborative
 relationships with other agencies, and cross-training of personnel in
various tactical approaches.
description: A mail survey was developed and administered to
 state and local law enforcement agencies to document and identify the
 frequency with which various drug enforcement tactics were in use and
 to search further for previously unidentified tactics. Nearly 750
 investigation and patrol units in the United States serving
 populations of 50,000 or more were mailed surveys. Two surveys,
 identical except for color coding and title, were sent to each
 agency's chief of police: one survey was for completion regarding the
 patrol unit and the other survey was for completion regarding the
 investigations unit. This dual pattern of administration was intended
 to capture the extent to which the techniques of one unit had been
 applied by another. Basic data collection efforts began prior to
 primary data collection with a comprehensive literature review and
 consultations with panels of practitioner and academic drug experts.
 These data were used to develop a listing of the various anti-drug
 tactics that could be readily identified. This listing was designed to
 cover both traditional and nontraditional or innovative tactics. Based
 on the basic data collection, some 140 various drug tactics were
 identified. Research staff participated in a meeting with an expert
 advisory panel including law enforcement representatives to group the
 various tactics into mutually exclusive, concise, and closely-related
 categories of tactics. The survey instrument was designed to collect
 information about the use of various drug enforcement tactics, improve
 the comprehensiveness of the list of anti-drug tactics by soliciting
 additional tactics, and gain more detailed insight into the nature of
promising anti-drug tactics.
description: The questionnaire consisted primarily of
 dichotomous survey questions on anti-drug tactics that could be
 answered "yes" or "no". In each of the 14 categories of tactics,
 respondents were encouraged to add other previously unidentified or
 unspecified tactics in use in their agencies. These open-ended
 questions were designed to insure that a final list of anti-drug
 tactics would be truly comprehensive and capture the universe of drug
 tactics in use. In addition to questions regarding structural
 dimensions of anti-drug tactics, the survey also collected
 standardized information about the law enforcement agency, including
 agency size, demographic characteristics and size of the agency's
 service population, and a description of the relative size and nature
of the jurisdiction's drug problems.
description: Response Rates: This study produced a total initial sample of
 750 state and local law enforcement agencies. A total of 387 agencies
 (51 percent) responded, producing a final sample consisting of 323
investigation units and 307 patrol units.
description: Presence of Common Scales: None.
description: Nearly 750 state and local law enforcement agencies
 serving populations of 50,000 or more were mailed surveys. A total of
 630 (323 investigation, 307 patrol) respondents (84 percent) replied
to the survey.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Investigation Unit Data
DS2: Patrol Unit Data
description: State and local law enforcement agencies in the United
States serving populations of 50,000 or more.
description: The codebook is provided by ICPSR as a Portable
 Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe
 Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software,
 such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy
of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.