Evaluation of the Accomplishments and Impact of the Programs of LEAA in the Areas of Information Systems Development and Statistics Services (NCJISS)

• NCJ Number: 83141
• Author(s): P S McMullan
• Date Published: 1976
• Length: 159 pages
• Contract Number(s): J-LEAA-009-76
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice
• Corporate Author: Midwest Research Institute; RTI International
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Statistics
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: RTI Project 26U-1189

Annotation

This report evaluates the effectiveness of the work LEAA has undertaken in information systems and statistics services over the 6 years ending in early 1976.

Abstract

The study assessed the producer-consumer relationships between the National Criminal Justice Information and Statistics Service (NCJISS) and the receivers and users of statistics produced by NCJISS. It also evaluated LEAA support for the development of criminal justice information systems. Evaluation of 76 criminal justice information systems showed that most of them are promoting rapid retrieval of more accurate information and are greatly helping criminal justice agencies to perform their functions. LEAA funds have made significant differences in the rates of development of information systems, with timing of these funds often more important than the amount. Consumers of LEAA development support would like more and better information about other systems which are operating successfully, technical assistance in measuring the efficiency of systems, clearer guidelines and regulations, and less administrative delay. LEAA should provide information on successful systems and should develop a methodology for evaluating information systems. Personal interviews at the Federal, State, and local levels and telephone interviews with general subscribers to NCJISS-produced documents formed the basis of the evaluation of the use of NCJISS-produced documents and data services. Documents produced in the field were also evaluated. The documents and services were found to be generally meeting the Federal needs for which they were designed but were not meeting the needs of State and local agencies. The NCJISS data series should give more complete coverage to State and local areas and should permit realistic comparisons within and between States. Additional findings and recommendations, tables, and appendixes presenting guidelines for the interviews, biographies of study team members, and a glossary are provided.