SUPPORTING STATEMENT
COPS Interoperable Communications Technology Program Assessment Survey
Part A. Justification:
1. Necessity of Information Collection.
On September 13, 1994, President Clinton signed into law the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Pub. L. 103-322). Title I of the "crime bill," the Public Safety Partnership and Community Policing Act of 1994 (the Act), authorizes the Attorney General to make grants to states, units of local government, Indian tribal governments, other public and private entities, and multi-jurisdictional or regional consortia thereof to increase police presence, to expand and improve cooperative efforts between law enforcement agencies and members of the community, to address crime and disorder problems, and otherwise to enhance public safety.
As part of this grant making process, the Attorney General has the authority to establish grant programs, as well as any procedures necessary to administer grants under these programs. These grants must be monitored, and one way of doing so is to collect status reports. The COPS Office proposes a new collection to support the assessment of the COPS Interoperable Communications Technology Program (ICTP).
2. Needs and Uses
The “COPS Interoperable Communications Technology Program Assessment Survey” will be used to assess the 65 ICTP grants awarded between fiscal years 2003-2006. The COPS Office has awarded a cooperative agreement to a non-profit research organization to perform an assessment of the program. Specifically, the COPS Office is seeking case studies from COPS-funded public safety interoperability projects that can be shared with other Executive Branch agencies. Additionally, the assessment will ascertain best practices and lessons learned that can be shared with the public safety community at large. The survey, performed during a telephone interview, provides a summary of critical information: project status, project governance, planning, project performance measures, project management, procurement, technology implementation, policies, training, and project impacts. Many of these broad categories mirror the DHS SAFECOM Interoperability Continuum. This collection will provide substantive information to help the COPS Office best manage these awards, plus share best practices to other public safety agencies.
Telephone Survey Administration Process. All interviewers have been selected for their subject matter knowledge and experience in conducting similar assessments and telephone surveys and will be thoroughly trained in the assessment protocols. Each interviewer will be assigned a subset of projects and will review available documentation on those projects, including copies of grant files provided by the COPS Office, before beginning the interviews. This will reduce the time that respondents might otherwise have to spend explaining their projects’ history, grant objectives, and other information. Prior to the interviews, the COPS Office will send an announcement letter explaining the assessment survey’s purpose, process, and expected benefits. For each assigned project, the interviewer will first contact the grantee’s designated point of contact. This individual and other survey respondents will be given a copy of the telephone survey guide in advance. The initial respondents will answer questions about which they have direct knowledge and refer the interviewers to others who are in the best position to address various subtopics. For example, the initial respondent may be able to address many questions about project administration but may not be as familiar with the specific technologies being implemented or the training or testing aspects of the project. The interviewer would then contact other project personnel, as appropriate for each site, and ask them to address questions pertaining to their specific areas of responsibility and expertise. Another consideration for the interviews is each project’s implementation status. For completed projects, it should be possible to address all or most survey questions during an initial set of interviews. Most projects, however, are ongoing and will thus require follow-up with some of the initial respondents and/or additional respondents. The interviewers will keep logs of all contacts and note the dates by which each ongoing project expects to reach additional key milestones. Follow-up interviews will then be scheduled, as needed, after those milestones have been reached. Respondents may also choose to answer some questions in written form (e.g., via email, by writing answers on the survey guide itself, or by sending related project documents) if this is more convenient for them.
3. Efforts to Minimize Burden
The proposed COPS ICTP Assessment Survey is grant award-specific and will be completed during a telephone interview. The survey questions will be shared via e-mail with respondents prior to the telephone interview to provide adequate preparation. The COPS Office has minimized the burden on the public by selecting a small number of grantees that must complete the ICTP Assessment Survey. Only 65 grants will be surveyed with a maximum of 400 respondents affiliated with public safety agencies. There will be approximately six respondents per grant award since these projects are regional in scope, and include multiple public safety disciplines. The collection will be administered a various times during the three-year assessment period depending on the progress of the ICTP projects. A respondent will complete the entire survey only once.
4. Efforts to Identify Duplication
There is no duplicative effort.
5. Methods to Minimize Burden on Small Business
This collection instrument will have no significant impact on small business.
6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection
A less frequent collection or fewer respondents would not allow sufficient information to perform the ICTP assessment.
7. Special Circumstances Influencing Collection
There are no special circumstances that would influence the collection of information pertaining to the COPS Interoperable Communications Technology Program Assessment Survey.
8. Reasons for Inconsistencies with 5 CFR 1320.6
There are no inconsistencies with this regulation. The COPS Office will display the valid OMB Control Number, expiration date, and PRA Notice on the COPS Interoperable Communications Technology Program Assessment Survey. The COPS Office also sought public comment through posting 60-day and 30-day federal register notices. The COPS Office did not receive any public comments on this information collection.
9. Payment or Gift to Respondents
The COPS Office does not provide any payment or gift to respondents. Furthermore, it is not permitted under the terms of the grants.
10. Assurance of Confidentiality
No assurance of confidentiality has been made to respondents.
11. Justification for Sensitive Questions
There are no questions of a sensitive nature. No information commonly considered as private is included in the proposed requested information.
12. Estimate of Hour Burden
The COPS Interoperable Communications Technology Program Assessment Survey will be completed by all active ICTP grantees awarded during fiscal years 2003-2006. The COPS Office estimates that 65 agencies will complete this survey, with multiple respondents per project completing the survey, as these interoperability projects are multi-jurisdictional and multidisciplinary. The COPS Office estimates that approximately six respondents per project will complete the ICTP Assessment Survey, with a maximum of 400 total respondents. The collection will be administered a various times during the three-year assessment period depending on the progress of the respective ICTP projects. A respondent will complete the entire survey only once.
The estimated hour burden to respondents for completing the above referenced survey is 1.5 hours for each respondent.
1.5 hours per respondent x 400 respondents = 600 hours for administering the survey
The assessment also calls for selecting 12 to 15 grant projects for case studies, which will include on-site interviews with personnel responsible for implementing various aspects of these projects. The COPS Office will select the case study/site visit projects based on the telephone survey results and document reviews. Participation in the case studies/site visits will be voluntary for the grantees. On-site interviews will be scheduled in advance to accommodate participants’ schedules and will be conducted individually and/or in small group settings, depending on the project and the preferences of participating personnel. An average of 12 individuals per project will be interviewed over a 2-day period. The average time per interview is expected to be no more than 90 minutes. The total interview time spent for all participating grant project personnel is expected to be a maximum of 270 hours.
1.5 hours per respondent x 12 respondents per project = 18 hours per project x 15 projects = 270 hours for on-site interviews
COPS estimates a minimal record keeping burden for respondents.
13. Estimate of Cost Burden
Completing this COPS Interoperable Communications Technology Program Assessment Survey will not generate any costs other than those associated with the applicants’ time. Therefore, the estimated burden cost is $0.
14. Estimated Annualized Cost to Federal Government
The estimated annualized cost to the Federal government for reviewing the consolidated 65 project responses should require approximately 25 minutes per report. The research organization will consolidate responses by ICTP project. No special equipment, other than currently in-use personal computing equipment, is required. The total cost to the Federal government is estimated as follows:
COPS Interoperable Communications Technology Program Assessment Survey costs:
25 minutes per consolidated project response x 65 ICTP projects = 1,625 minutes / 60 minutes = 27 hours.
27 hours @ $53 per hour (a GS-15 serves as the project manager) = $1,431 for review
The ICTP Assessment Survey will be administered as a result of a cooperative agreement awarded by the government to a non-profit provider in the amount of $450,000.
15. Reason for Change in Burden
No changes, proposed new collection.
16 Publication
At the end of the ICTP Assessment, the non-profit research organization will develop two possible publications partly based upon information gleaned from the COPS Interoperable Communications Technology Program Assessment Survey. The first possible publication may be public safety communications interoperability project case studies to be shared with other Executive Branch agencies. The second likely publication will contain best practices and lessons learned for public safety communications interoperability based on the COPS ICTP projects that can be shared with the public safety community at large.
17. Request not to Display OMB Control Number
The COPS Office will display the OMB approval number and expiration date on the upper right hand corner of the collection instrument.
18. Exceptions to Certification Statement
The COPS Office does not request an exception to the certification of this information collection.
Part B. Statistical Methods
This collection of information does not require the employment of statistical methods.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | SUPPORTING STATEMENT |
| Author | karen beckma |
| Last Modified By | mwatkins |
| File Modified | 2007-05-10 |
| File Created | 2007-05-10 |