University of Iowa center proposes survey and focus groups to gauge Johnson County views on sheriff’s office and jail

The Johnson County Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee heard a proposal on Thursday, February 2025 from the University of Iowa Center for Social Science Innovation to survey and convene focus groups to measure community and provider perspectives on the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and jail.

The center proposed a mixed‑method project that would target about 400 completed surveys, stratified by geography and supplemented by phone follow‑up, plus six 90‑minute focus groups (three targeted to people with relevant expertise or experience and three recruited from the survey pool). The center estimated the program cost at approximately $77,000 and presented an accelerated timeline that would require a contract be signed before March to begin survey development in April, report interim results in May–June and close out in July.

“This is simply our recommendation,” Ethan Rogers, associate director for the Center for Social Science Innovation, told the committee. Rogers said the center would collaborate with committee members on question content and sampling and could supply dual‑language…