Letter

June 13, 2008

Ms. Katherine K. Wallman

Chief Statistician

Office of Information and

Regulatory Affairs

Office of Management and Budget

Room 10201

New Executive Office Building

725 17th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20503

Dear Ms. Wallman:

I am writing regarding the Revision to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity, which was published by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Federal Register on October 30, 1997, and the FBI's status toward compliance with those standards for the data it collects through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.

The UCR Program is a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of thousands of law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting offense and arrest data on crimes brought to their attention. Currently, agencies can submit their data to the UCR Program via the traditional Summary Reporting System (which began in 1930 as a paper system and has had few modifications through the years) or the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS, which was developed in the late 1980s as an exclusively automated system). In addition to providing richer, more detailed data, the NIBRS has the capacity to expand to meet new and modified reporting requirements.

The FBI takes seriously its responsibility to align the data categories used by the UCR Program with the OMB's revised standards for race and ethnicity. In fact, our first step toward compliance is being made through the revision of the UCR Program's Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) Form 1-701, Analysis of Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted. As specified by the OMB standards, the form will offer five racial categories, an ethnicity indicator, and the option to report individuals of multiple races.

Rather than the FBI modifying the UCR Program's Summary Reporting System, i.e., Form 1-704, Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR); Form 1-708, Age, Sex, and Race of Persons Arrested, Persons 18 Years of Age and Over; and Form 1-708a, Age, Sex, and Race of

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1 - Mr. Bush, Mod C3

1 - Mr. Morris, Mod C3

1 - Mr. Casey, Mod E3

1 - Mr. Scarbro, Mod E3

1 - Ms. Carnes, Mod. D3

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Ms. Katherine K. Wallman

Persons Arrested, Persons Under 18 Years of Age, it is focusing its efforts on the systematic updating of the UCR Program through enhancing the NIBRS. In addition, the race and ethnicity revisions are currently on the agenda of the 2008 Criminal Justice Information Services Advisory Policy Board to advise these UCR Program stakeholders that modifications to the NIBRS are imminent in the months ahead. For these reasons, plus the fact that we hope that more of our contributing agencies will invest their resources in the NIBRS, the FBI has not revised the Summary Reporting System race categories. We hope we can count on the OMB's support of this plan through its approval of the Summary Reporting System forms "as is" during their triennial review knowing that the race and ethnicity revisions of the NIBRS are among the UCR Program's top priorities.

I hope this provides clarification on the FBI's commitment to comply with the revised standards for the classification of federal data on race and ethnicity. We look forward to your ongoing cooperation on this matter. If you have questions concerning this information, please contact the staff of the Crime Statistics Management Unit by telephone at (304) 625-4830.

Sincerely yours,

Thomas E. Bush, III

Assistant Director

Criminal Justice Information

Services Division

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