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The Homeland Security in Small Law Enforcement Jurisdictions study drew upon data collected from 350 small (1-25 full time sworn officers) law enforcement agencies nationwide to address four gaps in the homeland security research literature and clarify/expand upon an empirically-derived model of homeland security preparedness and organizational efficacy.

• Whether physical and relational proximity to large agency peers facilitates the development of homeland security preparedness and improves perceptions of organizational efficacy (the capacity of an organization to respond) in small agencies and, conversely, whether the geographic isolation of small, rural agencies inhibits homeland security efforts.
• Whether efficacy of efforts to enhance homeland security is not just a function of perceived/actual risk or funding, but also other "institutional pressures", such as books and journal publications, as well as conferences, training, and other professional networks and channels.
• Assessments of preparedness outcomes through "organizational efficacy", the perception about the organization's ability to accomplish its goals.
• The lack of theoretical context, such as contingency and institutional theory frameworks, used to examine data on preparedness and organizational efficacy.

This multidisciplinary study included three objectives: (1) to conduct physical security surveys of K-12 schools in Arizona to compile a dataset of the physical security barrier technologies in use in those schools; (2) to survey parents and teachers about their perceptions of security in their schools, and compare their perceptions to those of security experts who conducted physical security surveys of participating schools; and (3) to test commonly used door and window materials in schools against ballistic and forced entry attack to determine the time necessary to penetrate the material.

To assess physical security, researchers visited 73 schools in 15 school districts and collected data on 3712 doors. The data collected included door material, door condition, hinges, locks, door knobs, door closers, and any windows adjacent to, or in, each door. Board certified security professionals and a retired law enforcement officer then scored the security value of each type of physical security device on a scale of 0 to 5. The scores were aggregated to arrive at an overall security score for each school that was compared to the survey responses of stakeholders. Commonly used door and window materials used in schools were also tested against ballistic and force entry attacks to establish baseline penetration times. The Penetration Test Protocols is available to download as study documentation, but the completed test report is not available with this collection.

Parent perceptions were assessed using a 45 item survey. Data were collected from 614 parents or guardians who had at least one child attending one of 43 K-12 schools in 9 Arizona school districts. Most parent respondents self-identified as females (n = 401; 94 missing data points). The average parent respondent age was 43.64 (SD = 8.70), with an age range from 23 to 78 years old (113 missing data points). Parent respondents identified as White, non-Hispanic (66 percent), Hispanic (10.3 percent), Black or African American (.5 percent), American Indian (4.6 percent), Asian (.7 percent), and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (.2 percent; 110 missing data points).

Teacher perceptions were assessed using a 47 item survey. Data were collected from 384 teachers who taught at one of 43 K-12 schools in 8 Arizona school districts. Most teacher respondents self-identified as females (n = 292; 6 missing data points). The average teacher age was 45.38 (SD = 12.77), with an age range from 22 to 100 years old (39 missing data points). Teacher respondents identified as White, non-Hispanic (84.4 percent), Hispanic (7.8 percent), Black or African American (.5 percent), American Indian (1 percent), Asian (.3 percent), and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (.3 percent; 18 missing data points). The participants' reported an average job tenure of 7.12 years (SD = 6.65), with a range from .17 to 40 years at their school (26 missing data points).

Despite the critical information security issues faced by academic institutions, little research has been conducted at the policy, practice, or theoretical levels to address these issues, and few policies or cost-effective controls have been developed. The purpose of this research study was three-fold: (1) to create an empirically-based profile of issues and approaches, (2) to develop a practical road map for policy and practice, and (3) to advance the knowledge, policy, and practice of academic institutions, law enforcement, government, and researchers. The study design incorporated three methods of data collection: a quantitative field survey, qualitative one-on-one interviews, and an empirical assessment of the institutions' network activity.

Survey data collection involved simple random sampling of 600 academic institutions from the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) database, recruitment via postcard, telephone, and email, Web-based survey administration, and three follow-ups. Results are contained in Part 1, Quantitative Field Survey Data. Interview data collection involved selecting a sample size of 15 institutions through a combination of simple random and convenience sampling, recruitment via telephone and email, and face-to-face or telephone interviews. Results are contained in Part 2, Qualitative One-on-One Interview Data. Network analysis data collection involved convenience sampling of two academic institutions, recruitment via telephone and email, installing Higher Education Network Analysis (HENA) on participants' systems, and six months of data collection. Results are in Part 3, Subject 1 Network Analysis Data, and Part 4, Subject 2 Network Analysis Data.

The Quantitative Field Survey Data (Part 1) contains 19 variables on characteristics of institutions that participated in the survey component of this study, as well as 263 variables derived from responses to the Information Security in Academic Institutions Survey, which was organized into five sections: Environment, Policy, Information Security Controls, Information Security Challenges, and Resources. The Qualitative One-on-One Interview Data (Part 2) contains qualitative responses to a combination of closed-response and open-response formats. The data are divided into the following seven sections: Environment, Institution's Potential Vulnerability, Institution's Potential Threat, Information Value and Sharing, End Users, Countermeasures, and Insights. Data collected through the empirical analysis of network activity (Part 3 and Part 4) include type and protocol of attack, source and destination information, and geographic location.

This study seeks to inform about the effectiveness and impact of school safety programs in the state of Virginia. In many Virginia schools, ensuring school safety often involves the use of School Resource Officers (SRO) and School Security Officers (SSO), or some combination of SROs and SSOs. This study investigated the current state of SRO and SSO programs in Virginia to illuminate how SRO and SSO programs are operating and uncover best practices associated with program development, implementation, and evaluation. Specifically, the research questions were:

• RQ1: How are SROs and SSOs trained to operate in K-12 public schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia?
• RQ2:What are the criteria that are being used to select SROs and SSOs to operate in schools?
• RQ3: How are the activities of SROs and SSOs that do not result in an arrest being documented?
• RQ4: How are SROs and SSOs operating in schools supervised by their own department and/or by the school(s) in which they operate?
• RQ5: What criteria are used to assess SRO and SSO performance?
• RQ6: To what extent are SROs and SSOs involved addressing school disciplinary matters that do not rise to the level of criminal activity?
• RQ7: Are there differences when comparing between school districts that have MOUs with local law enforcement, and school districts that do not have formal arrangements with local law enforcement?

The Urban Institute and the Minnesota Department of Corrections (MnDOC) attempted to improve the surveillance system in two state correctional facilities: Stillwater (STW) and Moose Lake (ML). The goal of this study was to conduct a rigorous process and impact evaluation of the steps that STW and ML took to optimize their surveillance systems, which included repositioning existing cameras, installing new cameras, and making other infrastructural upgrades. In addition, ML integrated an audio analytic technology in their system that would alert on-unit security staff through a visual and audio alert when it detected sounds associated with anger, fear, or verbal aggression.

The evaluation used a mixed-methods research design. Qualitative data collection included stakeholder interviews and in-depth observations of the camera operations at ML and STW before, during, and after the upgrades. The research team interviewed wardens, supervisors and officers working in the intervention units, and numerous other individuals who oversaw operations, investigations, information technology, and camera installation and configuration in ML and STW.

Quantitative administrative data were collected from ML and comparison facilities and comparative interrupted time-series (CITS) analyses were employed to examine changes in two outcomes (total misconduct incidents and guilty dispositions) following the intervention. To support the CITS, another unit in ML was identified that did not upgrade its surveillance system but was similar to the intervention housing unit in terms of population, architecture, and misconduct levels (internal comparison unit), and used the synthetic control method to create another comparison unit derived from the three other medium-security prisons operated by MnDOC (external comparison unit).

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

This study identified the temporal dimensions of terrorists' precursor conduct to determine if these behaviors occurred in a logically sequenced pattern, with a particular focus on the identification of sequenced patterns that varied by group type, group size, and incident type. The study specifically focused on how these pre-incident activities were associated with the successful completion or prevention of terrorist incidents and how they differed between categories of terrorism. Data utilized for this study came from the American Terrorism Study (ATS), a database that includes "officially designated" federal terrorism cases from 1980-October 1, 2016, collected for the National Institute of Justice.

The project focused on three major issues related to terrorists' precursor behaviors:

• A subgroup analysis of temporal, crime-specific patterns by group type,
• The nature of the planning process, and
• Factors associated with the outcomes of terrorist incidents (success or failure).

The collection contains 2 SPSS data files, Final_Hypothesis_Data_Set.sav (n=550; 16 variables) and Final_Sequencing_Antecedent_Temporal.sav (n=2354; 16 variables), and 1 plain text file, Recode_Syntax.txt.