Survey of Law Enforcement Officers/Agencies: Attitudes Towards and Resources for Traffic Safety Enforcement

PRE-SOLICITATION SYNOPSIS Notice Date: 7 April 2014 Solicitation Number: DTNH22-14-R-00040 Response Due: 26 June 2014 BACKGROUND: The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) is an agency of the U.S. DOT (Department of Transportation). NHTSA's mission is to save lives, prevent injuries and reduce traffic-related health care and other economic costs. The agency develops, promotes and implements effective educational, engineering and enforcement programs with the goal of ending preventable tragedies and reducing economic costs associated with vehicle use and highway travel. Current data is essential to develop future approaches to improve traffic safety. NHTSA is authorized to collect data and develop programs appropriate to meet policy requirements With the help and cooperation of partners in law enforcement, NHTSA's work over the past decades has significantly improved law enforcement strategies and traffic safety. However, continued effort is crucial to extending and maintaining these improvements . In June 2001, a NHTSA report stated that "command emphasis is obviously essential to sustaining traffic law enforcement levels. During times of budget shortfalls or public safety problems, traffic enforcement is one of the first areas to be cut back. Without the support of senior staff and officials, efforts may decline" . As a consequence of the events of September 11th, 2001 and recent economic challenges, a number of Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) have merged traffic enforcement with other enforcement divisions in order to reduce costs. Therefore, it is important to gain an understanding of how attitudes and resources have changed in recent years, in order to determine what NHTSA can do to encourage a more ideal prioritization of traffic safety. This project will involve a mixed-mode (in-person and web) survey of LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers) and LEAs. In order to avoid results that reflect preconceptions that exist in the traffic safety community, it is important that this survey include respondents not those typically reached by NHTSA. This information will be used by NHTSA and our traffic safety partners to help shape strategies for coordinating and promoting activities with LEOs and LEAs. For example, it has the potential to help NHTSA a) develop plans to increase LEO/LEA participation in periods of high visibility enforcement along with media and outreach (e.g., mobilizations and crackdowns ), b) motivate and support enforcement as a sustained activity , c) improve methods of data sharing , d) develop promotional materials better-targeted for LEOs and LEAs, and e) affect the outreach for other programs. Moreover, to the extent possible, LEA specific information may help guide future NHTSA program evaluation. Specifically by, a) identifying LEAs/LEOs that are interested in collaboration on traffic safety issues; b) identifying the resources available to those LEAs/LEOs; c) determining the availability of traffic safety data; d) the costs/difficulties associated with accessing that data. Optional tasks may provide means for engaging in more detailed investigations of particular areas of programmatic interest. For examples of areas and topics of interest, see research conducted the Office of Behavioral Safety Research . In addition, alternative methodologies may be employed in order to develop detailed narrative descriptions (e.g. focus groups and individual interviews ) and/or more objective evidence (e.g. record analyses ) of the attitudes and resources captured in this survey. PROJECT PURPOSE AND GOALS: Purpose: The purpose of this Time and Materials contract is to conduct a survey of law enforcement officers and law enforcement agencies to understand and identify resources for and attitudes towards traffic safety. This information will be used to shape strategies for coordinating and promoting activities with LEOs and LEAs. Goals: The objectives/goals of this project are: - Identify current and past attitudes, as well as expectations for the future, held within the law enforcement community (across all command levels) towards traffic safety law enforcement. For example, what do officers believe about various types of traffic enforcement, relative to other job roles, in terms of its ability to be performed, its priority, and whether it makes a difference? What factors, beyond command emphasis, motivate officers to engage/not-engage in traffic safety law enforcement? - Identify available resources and resource restrictions faced by LEOs and LEAs for traffic safety enforcement. For example, what interventions (Crackdowns/Mobilizations), approaches (DDACS), and training (Standardized Field Sobriety Test/Drug Recognition Specialist) are available to LEOs and how do individual LEOs interact with and deal with these resources and resource restrictions; what data do they collect and how do they use it? - Determine the values/processes used by law enforcement agencies when determining the prioritization of enforcing traffic safety laws. For example, what priority/value do LEOs and LEAs place on traffic safety relative to other areas of enforcement? - Determine the strengths/weaknesses associated with merging traffic enforcement with other enforcement divisions. For example, does the loss of a dedicated traffic division result in a decrease in the enforcement of traffic safety or does the resulting spread of responsibility across the entire department result in an increase in traffic safety enforcement? Period of Performance: All work required hereunder, including preparation, submission, review of any and all reports, shall be completed within the Performance Period of forty-eight (48) months after the effective date of the Contract. The Government reserves the right to exercise optional tasks to be completed within the performance period. Award: The Government intends to award a Time and Materials contract resulting from the solicitation, with or without discussion, to the responsive Offeror whose proposal, conforming to the solicitation, is most advantageous to the Government based on the evaluation factors contained in the RFP. Offerors are responsible for monitoring the www.fedbizopps.gov internet site for the release of the solicitation and amendments (if any). Potential Offerors will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the solicitation and amendments (if any). Requests for paper copies of the RFP will not be accepted. The estimated date of release of the solicitation is on or about 26 May, 2014. The anticipated contract award date is expected on or before September 30, 2014. Contracting Office Address: U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE NPO-320 - W51-308 Washington, DC 20590, United States