D.C. Law 25-151. Crime Victimization Survey Amendment Act of 2023.

AN ACT

To amend the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council of the District of Columbia Establishment Act of 2001 to direct the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council to contract with an entity to conduct a biennial crime victimization survey, to establish certain criteria that the entity shall meet, to establish the Crime Victimization Survey Task Force, and to establish basic parameters of the survey and a survey report to be transmitted to the Mayor and the Council.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this act may be cited as the "Crime Victimization Survey Amendment Act of 2023".

Sec. 2. The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council of the District of Columbia Establishment Act of 2001, effective October 3, 2001 (D.C. Law 14-28; D.C. Official Code § 22-4231 et seq.), is amended by adding a new section 1506a to read as follows:

"Sec. 1506a. Crime victimization survey.

"(a) The CJCC shall contract with a survey entity ("entity") to conduct a biennial crime victimization survey ("survey") in the District, which shall include:

"(1) Developing the survey format and questions and the plan for administrating the survey;

"(2) Engaging with the Crime Victimization Survey Task Force ("Task Force"), including consulting the Task Force and reviewing Task Force recommendations and guidance;

"(3) Administering the survey to the target populations;

"(4) Collecting, cleaning, coding, and weighting data on the survey as required by the CJCC; and

"(5) Transmitting collected survey data to the CJCC.

"(b) The entity shall:

"(1) Have executed similar surveys in urban jurisdictions in the United States;

"(2) Demonstrate significant experience in survey research, including creating and testing survey instruments, fielding surveys through various survey modes, and securely storing and analyzing complex survey data;

"(3) Engage an institutional review board, which shall be responsible for reviewing the methodology of the survey and to ensure that all aspects of the survey conform to applicable federal regulations on research projects involving human subjects and best practices in survey research;

"(4) Demonstrate experience in engaging with or offering services to crime victims in a linguistically and culturally competent and trauma-informed manner, such as providing evidence that the entity staff receive trainings on victim-centered and trauma-informed competencies; and

"(5) Demonstrate expertise in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in survey outreach, data collection, and analysis.

"(c)(1) The entity, once under contract, shall submit a list of any personnel who will have access to personal identifiable information ("PII") data collected pursuant to the contract to the CJCC for approval before fielding the survey.

"(2) Any alterations or additions to the list of personnel shall be approved by the CJCC in writing prior to the personnel being permitted to access PII data collected pursuant to the contract.

"(d)(1) The entity shall take all reasonable measures to safeguard PII data collected pursuant to the contract by complying with data access, retention, and protection requirements as prescribed by CJCC.

"(2) Within 10 days after the final survey report is issued, CJCC staff shall destroy the PII data from all devices made accessible to the entity pursuant to the contract or otherwise confirm that all PII data has been destroyed from those devices.

"(e) The survey shall be fielded to:

"(1) A representative sample of adults in the District; and

"(2) An oversample of adults in the District who live in areas with high levels of reported crime.

"(f) The survey shall include, at a minimum, questions on the following information and topics:

"(1) Demographic information of the respondents, including age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, primary language spoken, educational attainment, income, occupation, and Ward of residence;

"(2) Information on criminal victimization incidents ("incidents") experienced by respondents within the preceding 12 months, including, if known by the respondent:

"(A) The type of crime or crimes in which the respondent was victimized;

"(B) Any injuries sustained as a result of the incident;

"(C) The location of the incident;

"(D) The time of day that the incident took place;

"(E) The number of suspects involved in the incident;

"(F) The respondent's relationship to the suspect or suspects, if any;

"(G) Whether a weapon was used by the suspect or suspects during the incident; and

"(H) The estimated cost of any property destroyed or damaged by the suspects during the incident;

"(3) Incident reporting behavior by respondents, including:

"(A) Whether the respondent reported the incidents identified in their responses to questions posed pursuant to paragraph (2) of this subsection to the Metropolitan Police Department ("MPD");

"(B) If the respondent reported any incidents to MPD, the respondents' experience with MPD; and

"(C) If a respondent did not report any incidents to MPD, the reasons why the respondent elected not to report the incident, and what alternative reporting mechanisms, if any, the respondent used to respond to the incident or to deal with suspects;

"(4) Actions taken by the survey respondent after the incident to address the consequences of victimization, including alterations in behavior or the respondent's physical environment to avoid further victimization, the use of any medical or social services by the respondent, and the cost to the respondent for use of any medical or social services; and

"(5) Any other information that the CJCC determines necessary to adequately measure crime victimization and its consequences within the District.

"(g) The survey shall be accompanied with supplemental materials providing prospective respondents with information regarding the purpose of the survey, the ways in which the data collected will be used, and the protocols in place to protect respondents' identity and personal information. Both the survey and any supplemental materials shall be made available in the 5 most commonly spoken languages in the District.

"(h) The survey may be supplemented by additional data collected through other means, such as in-depth interviews or focus groups of District residents who have been victims of crime, as deemed appropriate by the CJCC.

"(i)(1) Before the CJCC posts a request for proposals for the survey, the CJCC shall convene the Task Force.

"(2) The Task Force shall serve as an advisory body to the entity and CJCC by providing:

"(A) Ad hoc consultation in identifying the goals, focus, scope, and themes of each biennial survey;

"(B) Advice on the development of the survey questions and post-analysis recommendations by the entity; and

"(C) Other support, as requested by the CJCC.

"(3)(A) The Task Force shall consist of the following individuals:

"(i) The Executive Director of the CJCC, or the Executive Director's designee;

"(ii) The Director of the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants, or the Director's designee;

"(iii) The Director of the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, or the Director's designee;

"(iv) The Chief of MPD, or the Chief's designee;

"(v) The Attorney General, or the Attorney General's designee;

"(vi) The United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, or the United States Attorney's designee;

"(vii) The Director of the Department of Behavioral health, or the Director's designee;

"(viii) One representative from the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence; and

"(ix) One representative from an organization that serves victims of crime.

"(B) The Director of the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants, or the Director's designee shall serve as the Chairperson of the Task Force.

"(C) The Task Force shall:

"(i) Provide the CJCC and entity with recommendations for the goals, focus, and scope of each survey;

"(ii) Produce themes, sub-themes, areas of questioning, and questions that the entity may turn into survey questions;

"(iii) Provide feedback to the entity on the survey, including on format, voice, and proposed questions to ensure the survey meets the goals, focus or scope as envisioned by the Task Force and is drafted in a linguistically and culturally competent and trauma-informed manner;

"(iv) Develop recommendations on trauma-informed survey dissemination protocols;

"(v) Review and provide feedback on the entity's plans to administer the survey and for sample selection; and

"(vi) Provide feedback to the CJCC on policy recommendations following the finalization of the survey.

"(D) The Task Force shall meet monthly until the design of the first biennial survey is complete and at a frequency agreed upon by the Director of the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants and the Executive Director of the CJCC thereafter.

"(j)(1) The CJCC, upon receipt of the survey data and any analysis by the entity, shall analyze the data and submit a report to the Mayor and Council within 180 days after the deadline for submission of survey responses by respondents.

"(2) The report shall, at a minimum, include:

"(A) Information about the methodology of the survey, including the sample size, how respondents were sampled, the survey mode, and non-response reduction strategies;

"(B) Information on cleaning, coding, and weighting procedures used by the entity and CJCC on the survey data for purposes of producing the analyses included in the report;

"(C) Descriptions of the inferred causes and contributing factors to crime victimization, including any trends or patterns observed in types of crimes or groups victimized;

"(D) Descriptive (describing the data gathered) and inferential (hypothesizing predictions and generalizing from the data gathered) statistics of survey data broken out by respondent demographics, including crime victimization rates, crime incident characteristics, crime reporting behavior, and any actions taken by the respondent after victimization; and

"(E) Recommendations to the Mayor and Council, based on the analysis provided in subparagraph (D) of this paragraph, to address identified gaps in processes, policies, and services for victims of crime in the District.

"(3)(A) The Task Force shall review the report draft prepared by the CJCC and provide feedback or other commentary on the report, after which the CJCC shall finalize the report and submit the final report to the Mayor and Council.

"(B) Any feedback or commentary provided by the Task Force pursuant to this paragraph shall be affixed as an appendix to the final report.

"(4) The report shall be made available to the public on the CJCC's website.

"(k)(1) A researcher may submit a written request 6 years after the completion of each survey report to the CJCC for de-identified data for purposes of secondary analysis.

"(2) The CJCC shall approve all requests in writing prior to dissemination of any requested data pursuant to this section.

"(3) Requests and any disseminated data shall be subject to any conditions deemed necessary by the CJCC to protect the data and ensure that respondents cannot be identified.".

Sec. 3. Applicability.

(a) This act shall apply upon the date of inclusion of its fiscal effect in an approved budget and financial plan.

(b) The Chief Financial Officer shall certify the date of the inclusion of the fiscal effect in an approved budget and financial plan, and provide notice to the Budget Director of the Council of the certification.

(c)(1) The Budget Director shall cause the notice of the certification to be published in the District of Columbia Register.

(2) The date of publication of the notice of the certification shall not affect the applicability of this act.

Sec. 4. Fiscal impact statement.

The Council adopts the fiscal impact statement in the committee report as the fiscal impact statement required by section 4a of the General Legislative Procedures Act of 1975, approved October 16, 2006 (120 Stat. 2038; D.C. Official Code § 1-301.47a).

Sec. 5. Effective date.

This act shall take effect following approval by the Mayor (or in the event of veto by the Mayor, action by the Council to override the veto), a 60-day period of congressional review as provided in section 602(c)(2) of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, approved December 24, 1973, (87 Stat. 813; D.C. Official Code § 1-206.02(c)(2)), and publication in the District of Columbia Register.