Psn Justification 2006[1]

SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT

RENEWAL SUBMISSION

PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS

SEMI-ANNUAL RESEARCHER REPORTING FORM

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

A. JUSTIFICATION

1. Necessity of Information: On May 14, 2001, with the support of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), President Bush announced the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative. This national initiative, coordinated by the United States Attorneys, promotes heightened cooperation among Federal, state, and local agencies in the effort to reduce gun violence. The program is administered at the national level by the Department of Justice, including the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), who administers the grants, training and technical assistance to the state and local partners. By seeking to commit $900 million to this endeavor, the President and the Attorney General have announced their intention make this initiative one of their top domestic priorities.

One of the central elements of PSN is the requirement that PSN task forces collect data on outcome measures related to the level of firearms violence in each judicial district and information on the strategies used to combat that gun violence. This information is essential if we are strategically to target our financial resources for maximum impact, and is a necessary element in assessing success or failure and providing the information required to make mid-course corrections in our local programs.

To accomplish the data collection at the local level, the Bureau of Justice Assistance has funded a research partner to work with each of the 94 districts.¹ The grant program provided $150,000 to a researcher in each district to be spent over three years. The data collected by these researchers has allowed for program assessment at the local level, but also has provided the opportunity to gauge the results of the initiative across the country. Understanding the gun violence problem throughout the country will allow the Department to identify trends and adapt the program at a national level to meet the needs of the districts. Additionally, by collecting both outcome and intervention measures, the Department can identify programs that demonstrate success in reducing targeted gun crime. This information is essential to evaluating the program and providing feedback at the national level that can inform management decisions.

In addition, this data will assist the Department in discharging its obligations under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993. Under GPRA, agencies are required to submit annual performance plans that establish performance goals and indicators, as well as describe operational processes and the means used to verify and validate reported measurements. This data collection will contribute significantly in the Department’s effort to submit a comprehensive performance plan. Because many of the PSN strategies developed to date have focused on particular areas within districts that have been most affected by gun violence, our national GPRA measurement will report on the change in gun violence in these targeted areas. In order for the Department to craft and report on its announced performance measures, the data being collected at the local level must be gathered on a national scale.

The document we will distribute to the field is entitled the “Project Safe Neighborhoods Semi-Annual Researcher Reporting Form.” The document requests that two forms of data be submitted. First, general crime data are to be reported for traditional elements reflecting the gun violence problem in the jurisdiction (e.g., homicide offenses known to the police). Second, locally-generated data are to be reported that may reflect the unique analysis conducted in this jurisdiction that reflect the nature of the gun violence problem beyond the descriptive data on gun violence (e.g., firearms injuries reported by a trauma center). In addition to the detailed gun violence data we will be receiving, we are also asking the respondents to provide us with information on intervention efforts, i.e. prosecution and sentencing statistics.

2. Purpose of Use: The information collected from the Project Safe Neighborhoods Semi-Annual Researcher Reporting Form will be processed by Michigan State University (MSU). MSU is a grantee of the Department of Justice, assisting local research grantees in the development of local research strategies to support implementation of the PSN strategy in the 93 districts. The local research strategy includes the collection crime data and other information. MSU will aggregate the data provided in this collection, analyze it and provide it to appropriate components in the Department of Justice to understand how the national gun violence reduction strategy is functioning in individual districts and at a national level. By collecting both outcome and intervention measures, the Department can identify programs that demonstrate success in reducing targeted gun crime. This information is essential to evaluating the program and providing feedback at the national level that can inform management decisions.

Additionally, this data will assist the Department in discharging its obligations under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993. Under GPRA, agencies are required to submit annual performance plans that establish performance goals and indicators, as well as describe operational processes and the means used to verify and validate reported measurements. The data submitted on the PSN Semi-Annual Researcher Reporting Form contributes significantly in the Department’s effort to both create and report on the new PSN performance measure submitted to Congress, “Reduction in Targeted Local Gun Crime.” That measure took effect in FY 2004 with the establishment of baseline measures.

3. Use of Information Technology: The Project Safe Neighborhoods Semi-Annual Researcher Reporting Form is designed to be easily understood and completed by all respondents, and the form will be made available electronically so as to reduce burden on researchers. Respondents will be able to complete the form in a word-processing program, attach it to an e-mail, and send it to the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. Every effort is being made to reduce the burden to the respondents and to facilitate the reception and manipulation of the data they gather.

4. Identification of Duplication: This is the only Federal effort gathering data semi- annually from the Project Safe Neighborhoods task forces, who are directly involved with the implementation of the President’s gun violence reduction initiative in each of the 93 judicial districts. The data being reported are not available in existing data reporting systems for a number of reasons. First, Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data are not reported for the principal target areas being utilized by PSN Task Forces, though in some instances the PSN principal target area is a subunit of a UCR reporting area (e.g., a specific precinct). In other cases, the PSN principal target area crosses UCR-reporting jurisdictional boundaries. Second, local prosecution data on firearms-related cases are not reported in a national reporting system. Third, federal prosecution data are available only at the federal judicial district level, which does not correspond to PSN Task Force principal target areas. Fourth, additional data being reported are site-specific and are not collected in existing reporting systems. Finally, the data provided by the respondents via this semi-annual data collection will be provided in a particularly timely fashion to the Department. In addition to being unable to use national crime statistics surveys, we cannot amend OMB #1121-0253 the “Categorical Assistance Progress Report”) because the semi-annual report authorized under OMB # 1121-0253 applies to all (BJA grantees, whereas this data collection will apply only to task forces under the PSN initiative. Were we to amend BJA’s general semi-annual report, it is possible that the change could affect all grantees, which is not the Department’s intention

5. Impact on Small Business or Other Entities: Submission of the Project Safe Neighborhoods Semi-Annual Researcher Reporting Form will not have an impact on small businesses. The information is collected from state and local law enforcement agencies.

6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection: The Project Safe Neighborhoods Semi-Annual Researcher Reporting Form will provide the opportunity to collect timely data on gun violence reduction measures on a national scale. Without these results, we will be unable to measure effectively the successes of the districts’ PSN initiatives in a timely and focused fashion. National reports like the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, the results of which are made available at a considerable delay, are comprehensive but are not tailored to the targeted interventions of the Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative and will not provide appropriate means of measurement. Accordingly, without the detailed information provided by the researchers in the Semi-Annual Researcher Reporting Form, management of the national initiative will suffer, and program decisions will be substantially less well informed. In addition, it will hinder the Department’s ability to create and report on performance measures under GPRA, which requires agencies to submit annual performance plans complete with program goals, indicators, and measurements used to verify successes and failures.

7. Special Circumstances: There are no special circumstances for this program.

8. Federal Register Publication and Consultation: OJP has solicited public comments on the data collection per OMB specifications. The 60-day and 30 Day Federal Register Notices were published to inform and solicit comments from the public. OJP did not

receive any comments.

9. Payment or Gifts to Respondents: No payment or gifts will be provided to respondents for completing the Semi-Annual Researcher Reporting Form.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality: The Project Safe Neighborhoods Semi-Annual Researcher Reporting Form does not request any personal identifiable information. The form only requests crime and intervention data from the districts in question.

OJP does not disclose any information which may compromise law enforcement activities nor investigation or is otherwise required by law to be kept confidential. OJP is compliant with 28 CFR 22 which protects confidentiality of identifiable and statistical information and is committed to keeping a system of records that is consistent with the regulations of the Privacy Act.

11. Question of a Sensitive Nature: The Project Safe Neighborhoods Semi-Annual Researcher Reporting Form contains no requests of a sensitive information. The form only requests crime and intervention data from the districts in question.

12. Estimate of the Hour Burden: Annual Reporting Burden

1. Number of Respondents: 93

2. Number of applications submitted per jurisdiction: 2 applications per year.

3. Total annual applications: 93 x 2 = 186

4. Hours per application: 1 (60 minutes)

5. Total Annual Reporting Burden: 186 x 1 hour per application = 186 hours

The time required to gather information to complete the survey is dependent on number of target areas per jurisdiction and the availability of requested data. Therefore, this estimate does not include the time it takes to gather the information, just the time it takes to complete the application.

13. Estimate of the Total Annual Cost Burden: There are no direct costs to the applicants other than time taken to complete and submit the application. Applicants are not requested to create and maintain an independent data collection, reporting systems, nor travel. Consequently, the applicants incur no additional costs.

14. Estimate of Annualized Cost to the Federal Government: None. The School of Criminal Justice at the Michigan State University (MSU) created this form to collect and evaluate data as part of a grant award entitled "Project Safe Neighborhood Academy Provision of Research Based Training and Technical Assistance." This form was created and is used to collect data. The data is compiled and entered into a database for research and evaluation. The creation and use of this form does not assess any additional cost to the Federal government.

15. Program Changes or Adjustments: This is an extension of a currently approved information collection.

16. Publishing Information: The data collected in the Project Safe Neighborhoods Semi-Annual Researcher Reporting Form will be used for internal management purposes and to help determine the future direction of the program. It will also be used to demonstrate successful implementation of PSN as well as ‘best practices’. In doing so, some data may be published without attribution to a specific district or target area unless permission has been obtained by the appropriate United States Attorney’s Office or Project Coordinator. Additionally, the data will be used to assist in creating performance measures and reporting on those performance measures under GPRA.

17. Expiration Date Approval: The assigned OMB Number and Expiration Date is displayed on the application form.

18. Exceptions to the Certification Statement Submission: OJP does not request an exception to the certification of this information collection.

See Attached Certification Statement.

2. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS

Statistical methods will not be used in the collection of information.

1While there are 94 judicial districts, there are only 93 United States Attorneys and accordingly 93 research partners. The Northern Mariana Islands and Guam share one research partner.

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