SUPPORTING STATEMENT
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 management process, the Attorney General has the authority to establish the Making Officer Redeployment Effective (MORE) grant program as well as the criteria used to determine grantee progress in grant implementation. The COPS Office is responsible for tracking the community policing activities of our grant recipients.
The MORE Closeout Report is an important instrument in our grant management and monitoring plan, and is used to measure our grantees’ progress in grant implementation and determine the grants’ readiness for closeout. A MORE Closeout Report will be mailed to all MORE grantees. The MORE Closeout Report has four modules and is geared toward assessing community policing activities and redeployment tracking and retention planning.
2. Needs and Uses
The MORE Closeout Report solicits information about the agency’s ability to implement the award which may include utilizing overtime hours, hiring civilian positions and implementing technology equipment projects; as well as the agency’s ability to track and retain the required time savings under the MORE grant. Questions include community policing activities summary, redeployment tracking and retention planning. A grant shall be eligible for closeout when the COPS Office determines that the grantee has completed all applicable actions and work required of the project.
The MORE Program has funded a different combination of time savings efforts each fiscal year. These time savings efforts include funding overtime for sworn officers, hiring civilian positions and funding technology equipment. This collection instrument has been designed to gather information across all MORE programs by developing question modules.
Module 1 - Standard Questions.
This module identifies the person responsible for completing the instrument and asks the agency to identify the community policing activities they conducted during the grant period.
Module 2 – Civilian Positions
This module has six questions which:
verify the required level of redeployment to result from the awarded civilian positions,
ask if all awarded civilian positions were filled,
ask if the agency had a method of tracking redeployment
identify the total number of FTEs that have been redeployed,,
ask if the agency has expended all MORE civilian funds and
ask if the agency planned to retain the civilian positions.
Module 3 – Technology / Equipment
This module has six questions which:
verify the required level of redeployment to result from the awarded technology / equipment,
ask if all awarded technology / equipment was purchased,
ask if the agency had a method of tracking redeployment,
identify the total number of FTEs that have been redeployed,
ask if the agency has expended all MORE technology / equipment funds and
ask if the agency planned to retain the technology / equipment.
Module 4 – Overtime
This module has five questions which:
verify the required level of redeployment to result from the awarded overtime,
ask if all the overtime has been redeployed,
ask if the agency had a method of tracking redeployment and
identify the total number of FTEs that have been redeployed,
ask if the agency planned to continue the overtime activities.
3. Efforts to Minimize Burden
The MORE Closeout Report is the final reporting document required to complete the grant closeout process.
The MORE Closeout Report is formatted using closed-ended questions. Each report contains pre-printed grant information, to eliminate the agencies’ need to type or hand-write the requested information. The questions are designed to be easily understood and answered by all grantees.
4. Efforts to Identify Duplication
There is no duplicative effort.
5. Methods to Minimize Burden on Small Business
There is no impact on small business.
6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection
This is a one time collection, therefore less frequent collection would not allow the COPS Office to ensure that grantees have complied with all grants requirements and conditions.
7. Special Circumstances Influencing Collection
There are no special circumstances that would influence the collection of information pertaining to the MORE Closeout Report.
8. Reasons for Inconsistencies with 5 CFR 1320.6
There are no inconsistencies with this regulation.
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 Respondent Burden
The estimated hour burden to respondents for completing each module in the referenced report is .25 hour/module based on previous experience with similar grant forms.
Number of respondents completing all 4 modules in one report = 6.
1 hour per respondent x 6 respondents = 6 hours per year.
Number of respondents completing modules 1, 2 & 3 in one report = 31
.75 hour per respondent x 31 respondents = 23.25 hours per year
Number of respondents completing modules 1 & 2 in one report = 108
.50 hour per respondent x 108 respondents = 54 hours per year
.50 hour per respondent x 115 respondents = 57.5 hours per year
The record keeping burden is estimated at 1.0 hour per respondent.
1 hour per respondent x 115 respondents = 115 hours per year
Total Respondent Burden: 255.75 hours per year.
13. Estimate of Cost Burden
Completing this report 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, compiling and processing the closeout reports should require approximately 1 hour per form. No special equipment, other than currently in-use personal computing equipment, is required. The total annual cost to the Federal government is estimated as follows:
1 hour per application x 260 reports per year = 260 hours
260 hours @ $31.00 per hour = $8,060 annually
15. Reason for Change in Burden
This collection is currently approved for a total of 1,579 annual burden hours. The COPS Office is currently requesting that the burden hours associated with this collection be reduced to 255.75 hours, a reduction of 1,323.25 hours. The majority of MORE Closeout Reports have already been mailed to grantees. Thus, fewer annual responses will be required.
16. Publication
The results of this collection of information may be published to provide an overview of the community policing activities and grant implementation of grantees.
Request not to Display OMB Control Number
COPS will display the OMB approval number and expiration date on the upper right hand corner of the collection instrument.
Exceptions to Certification Statement
COPS 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 |
| Author | karen beckma |
| Last Modified By | dorr8 |
| File Modified | 2009-03-06 |
| File Created | 2008-12-08 |