Implications of Questionnaire Redesign and Challenges to the Continuation of Trend in the 2011 Police-Public Contact Survey (303617)

Keywords: questionnaire redesign, trend estimation, error of commission, error of omission, measurement error, between-year, split-sample design, ratio adjustment

Every time an established periodic survey introduces a newly redesigned field instrument, there is a risk of introducing between-year measurement error rooted in the questionnaire design. Improvements to questionnaire structure and items that more accurately measure constructs of interest can also introduce instability to the associated trend estimates between survey years. In 2011, the Police-Public Contact Survey (PPCS) questionnaire was redesigned to better capture the U.S. population’s experiences with and perceptions of police during contacts in the previous 12 months. Changes to the instrument included expanded definitions of contact with police, use of behaviorally-specific items to measure contact and use or threat of force during the contact, and a restructuring of questionnaire order to increase respondent recall and decrease burden. This poster will outline some features of a redesigned questionnaire and describe how the estimates are impacted, describe methods for evaluating questionnaire item comparability between survey years, and provide a solution for adjustment to correct for between-year measurement error, illustrated by select examples from the PPCS.