State Courthouse Operations and Security Statistics Survey: Development and Design

Under this award, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) will carry out the 'State Courthouse Operations and Security Statistics Survey: Development and Design' project.

NCSC will develop and design a data collection program capable of assessing the frequency and nature of security-related incidents directed at courthouse personnel and identify the physical, operational, and procedural responses courts have made to cope with such incidents. Activities to be funded include: (1) develop a data collection instrument to obtain information on courthouse security operations and procedures, actual incidents of violence, and threats against courthouse staff and judicial personnel; (2) develop sampling methodologies for producing reliable national level estimates of courthouse security operations, threats, and incidents of violence in both limited and general jurisdiction state trial courts; (3) develop statistical models for assessing the reliability of the proposed sampling frameworks; (4) conduct pilot tests of the data collection instrument in a range of urban, suburban, and rural courts; (5) encourage participation from key state court professional agencies; and (6) provide an implementation plan for the national data collection to begin in 2009.

CA/NCF