The random samples of small cities and rural counties were selected using a formula developed by Cochran (1977, see appendix C). Implementation of the sampling method produced the following sample sizes: 397 jurisdictions from a total of 8,740 cities with populations between 2,500 and 25,000 identified by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, and 743 rural counties from a total of 2,356 included in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Crime in the United States, 1994: Uniform Crime Reports (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1995).

The comparative sample of 1,951 police and sheriff's departments was composed of jurisdictions that were surveyed in 1995 but were not included in the 1996 representative sample. These jurisdictions were surveyed to allow for comparative and trend analysis but will not be surveyed after 1998.

Survey instructions specifically asked that sheriff's departments report only for their "unincorporated service area and any contracted jurisdictions" to avoid reporting for cities and towns within their county that were already in the survey sample. To identify instances of duplicate reporting, survey recipients were also asked whether their responses included other jurisdictions and, if so, to identify those jurisdictions. Whenever it was determined that an agency might have responded inappropriately or had included other jurisdictions in its responses, NYGC contacted the respondent and clarified the responses.

All jurisdictions included in the sample were cross-referenced with a Bureau of the Census database to determine accurate and current populations. Each jurisdiction was assigned a Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Code assigned by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Each FIPS Code is unique and is linked to the most recent Bureau of the Census population estimates. The 1997 survey used population estimates for 1994 because they were the most current estimates available at the time the sample was developed.

Each city and town was assigned a FIPS Code that corresponded to the entire population of that area.³ Counties were assigned populations for their unincorporated areas. FIPS Code language refers to the unincorporated area of a county as the "balance of" the county and excludes the populations of incorporated cities and towns within the county. A few counties do not have a "balance of" population because there are no cities or towns within the jurisdiction. In such cases, the jurisdiction was assigned the population of the entire county.