1103-0096SupportingStatement-COPSApplicationGuide1-10

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

COPS Application Guide

Part A. Justification:

1. Necessity of Information Collection

The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) was established under the authority of the Attorney General to implement Title I of the “crime bill,” the Public Safety Partnership and Community Policing Act of 1994 (the Act). 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.

The COPS Office made modifications to this currently approved information collection to obtain additional data from applicants under the COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP) and to obtain additional needed data. All COPS applicants will use COPS this form.

The Attorney General has authorized the COPS Office to establish grant and cooperative agreement programs to advance community policing as well as the criteria used to determine eligibility for these programs. The COPS Office funds grant and cooperative agreement programs that advance community policing as an effective crime prevention strategy. COPS Office program funding is obligated to many different areas in an effort to enhance community policing. These funding categories may include: salary and benefits of new, additional sworn officer positions, civilian personnel, basic issue equipment, advanced department-wide equipment and technology, specialized problem-oriented policing projects, as well as training and technical assistance. COPS Office grants range from one-year grants to three-year grants depending upon the type of program. As part of all COPS Office grant and cooperative agreement applications, an applicant must review instructions and program information which describe the administrative and legal requirements governing COPS Office funding as well as other program-specific funding criteria and instructions. The Application Guide includes all of the necessary information an applicant would need to apply for COPS Office competitive and/or targeted funding.

All applicants for COPS Office funding will be required to complete:

1. SF-424;

2. COPS Application Attachment to SF-424 (OMB Number: 1103-0098); and

3. Budget Detail Worksheets (OMB Number: 1103-0097).

Each of these forms will be included as part of the application kit that the applicant receives.

The Application Guide will include information on all COPS Office discretionary funding that is generally available to agencies on a competitive basis and information on targeted funding. The guide consists of a standardized general section and a program-specific section dependent upon the program for which the applicant is applying. This collection includes the former collection number 1103-0095.

The total respondent burden hours for all COPS Office application collection instrument is estimated to be 13 hours.

This is broken out as follows:

1) COPS Application Attachment to SF-424 average: 10 hours

2. Budget Detail Worksheets: 2 hours

3. Application Guide: 1 hour for review of guidance

As stated above, the COPS Office will also be using the SF-424. The burden hours associated with the SF-424 were not accounted for in this total, as these burden hours are already accounted for on this government-wide form.

The total number of respondents annually for COPS Office programs is estimated to be 16,200

This is broken out as follows:

1) COPS Application Attachment to SF-424: 162,000 annual hours

2) Budget Detail Worksheets: 32,400 annual hours

3) COPS Application Guide: 16,200 annual hours

2. Needs and Uses

The COPS Application Guide (the “Guide”) will be used as the instructional Guide associated with the COPS Application Attachment to SF-424 and the COPS Budget Detail Worksheets. The Guide contains a standardized section which is applicable across all COPS Office program types. This streamlines the process for applicants that apply for more than one grant program as they do not have to review multiple instructional booklets with non-standardized information.

3. Efforts to Minimize Burden

The COPS Application Guide is the result of a COPS Office business process reengineering effort aimed at streamlining as required under the grant streamlining requirements of P.L. 106-107, the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999, as well as the President’s Management Agenda E-grants Initiative. Currently, the COPS Office uses multiple instructional booklets that are not standardized across programs. This new Guide streamlines instructional booklets across all COPS Office programs and should reduce the burden on applicants due the applicant’s ability to use the same Guide to gather information on multiple COPS Office programs, thus reducing the need for applicants to review multiple instructional guides.

The Guide will be provided online through the government-wide E-Government Initiative, Grants.gov. Those applicants that apply for funding online via Grants.gov will benefit from instructional help features, and other time saving features. This will greatly simplify the process for applicants and will decrease the error-rate of submissions, thus reducing the burden hours for applicants.

It is anticipated that all potential applicants will be notified at least sixty days prior to the application deadline date so that sufficient time will be allowed to review the Guide and gather the necessary information to complete the Application Attachment to SF-424 and Budget Detail Worksheets.

Once OMB approves the revision to this form to combine the current collections COPS Application Guide: Open/Competitive Programs (1103-0095) and COPS Application Guide: Targeted/Invited Program (1103-0096), the COPS Office plans to eliminate the current collection titled COPS Application Guide: Targeted/Invited Program (1103-0096).

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

Funding for the COPS Office’s grant and cooperative agreement programs is appropriated on an annual basis. For additional funds in future years, applicants may be required to reapply to the program. Interested agencies cannot become eligible for COPS Office grants without first reviewing the application information within the Guide. Thus, less frequent collection is not possible.

7. Special Circumstances Influencing Collection

There are no special circumstances that would influence the collection of information pertaining to the COPS Application Guide.

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 Hour Burden

COPS Office Programs	Annual Number of Responses for Open/Competitive Guide	Hours Per Response
COPS Hiring Recovery Program	10,000	1
COPS in Schools	2,000	1
Tribal Programs	200	1
Universal Hiring Program	2,000	1
Additional Specialized Program Appropriated Annually (i.e., Homeland Security Overtime Program, etc.)	1,000	1
Community Policing Development	200	1
Interoperable Communications Technology Program	100	1
Methamphetamine Grant Program	100	1
Safe Schools Initiative/Secure Our Schools	200	1
Technology Grant Program	400	1
	16,200 Annual Responses	1 Hour Per Response

As the chart above illustrates, there may be as many as 16,200 COPS Office applicants annually who will be required to review the information within the COPS Application Guide. The estimated hourly burden to the applicant is 1 hour for each respondent.

1 hour per respondent x 16,200 respondents = 16,200 hours

There is no record keeping burden for this collection.

Total Respondent Burden: 16,200 hours

13. Estimate of Cost Burden

Reviewing the COPS Application Guide: Open/Competitive Programs 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

There are no associated annualized costs to the Federal Government.

15. Reason for Change in Burden

There is no change in burden requested.

16. Publication

This data collection will not be published.

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.

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