BJS FY 15 Census of Tribal Law Enforcement Agencies

The proposed Census of Tribal Law Enforcement Agencies will be the first BJS data collection effort targeted solely at tribal law enforcement agencies. This survey will be designed to capture the many attributes of law enforcement agencies that are unique to tribal agencies. In general, these surveys will collected information on the criminal jurisdiction of the agency; staffing and recruitment; officer training; budgets and sources of funding; equipment; administrative and management information systems; services and support provided; agreements with other criminal justice entities; interactions with federal, state, regional and local agencies; access to, and participation, in local, regional, state and federal data systems (e.g., NCIC); access to and use of offender housing options; and access to and use of investigative support services. It will collect information from tribal law enforcement agencies, as well as Village Public Safety Offices (VPSO) in Alaska and from the law enforcement agencies cooperated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Due to their inherent differences, it is expected that the three general types of agencies (i.e., tribal law enforcement agency, VPSO, and BIA agency) will have their own customized survey form with a common core of items and a set of items designed specifically to collect the unique attributes of these different types of agencies.