SUPPORTING STATEMENT
Department Annual Progress Report
(COPS Hiring Progress Report)
Part A. Justification:
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 is charged with monitoring each program, project or activity it funds. The monitoring “required…(includes) systematic identification and collection of data about activities accomplishments and programs throughout the life of the program, project, or activity and presentation of such data in a usable format.” COPS has developed data collection instruments and programmatic progress reports, and has implemented a comprehensive monitoring plan including these reports, proactive phone contact, and site visits.
The Department Annual Progress Report is an important instrument in our grant management and monitoring plan, and is used to measure our grantees’ progress in grant implementation and to track the community policing activities of grant recipients. In accordance with OMB Circular A-102, Subpart C – Post-Award Requirements, Changes, Property, and Subawards, 3.5.4 Reports and Records/Reports, Records, Retention, and Enforcement §_.40(1) Monitoring and reporting program performance. “Grantees shall submit annual performance reports unless the awarding agency requires quarterly or semi-annual reports.”
Needs and Uses
The Department Annual Progress Report (DAPR) solicits information about the grantees’ COPS-funded hiring positions and community policing activities. To help manage the monitoring of grants, the COPS Office must obtain updated information from grantees. This need necessitates the COPS Office to use progress reports on an annual basis to determine the development of our grant recipients’ community policing activities and track the status of positions that were filled as a result of grant funding. The Grant Monitoring Division uses the information collected for pre-site visit preparation and the Grants Administration Division uses it to further enhance the technical assistance and customer service provided to grantees. The Program, Policy Support and Evaluation Division uses this information for evaluation of the programs funded by the COPS Office as well as the development of future programs.
All COPS hiring grantees that have grants that are not yet officially closed by the COPS Office will be required to complete the DAPR online or hard copy format once annually during the entire grant period and once for a final report after the expiration of the grant. Currently, the DAPR will be collected from grantees awarded under the following COPS officer hiring programs: Universal Hiring Program (UHP), COPS in Schools/Safe Schools Healthy Students (CIS/SSHS), the Tribal Resources Grant Program (TRGP), and the Tribal Mental Health and Community Safety Initiative Grant Program (TMHCSI). The COPS Office anticipates using the DAPR for any future officer hiring grants authorized.
The DAPR used to include a second type of information collection that applied to COPS grantees that have redeployment time-savings grants that are not yet officially closed by the COPS Office. Each year, grantees that have grants that have not been sent their closeout report were asked to report on their grant and redeployment. However, the COPS Office now plans to utilize the collection 1103-0090 Making Officer Redeployment Effective (MORE) Closeout Report to collect this redeployment information. Thus, the DAPR now only applies to hiring grantees and no statistical methods will be employed.
Efforts to Minimize Burden
The DAPR was part of a business process reengineering effort aimed at minimizing the reporting burden on COPS grantees by streamlining the collection of progress report and COPS Count information into one annual report. The COPS Office eliminated six of our other collection instruments (1103-0030, 1103-0061, 1103-0079, 1103-0080, 1103-0081, and 1103-0086) when the DAPR was approved by OMB. The DAPR will minimize the reporting burden on grantees significantly. The greatest impact will be for those grantees that have more than one different type of COPS hiring grant. For example, a grantee who has received a UHP, CIS, and TRGP grant will no longer be required to submit three separate annual progress reports, but rather will be able to complete one annual report for all three programs.
The DAPR will be collected once annually to cover the calendar year reporting period and once per expiring grant. The DAPR is available to complete online allowing the respondents to electronically submit their reports. Grantees without access to the Internet can complete the report via hard-copy or over the phone with a COPS staff member. The Internet-based and hard copy DAPR include pre-populated data based on grant award and respondent information found in the COPS Management System, thus minimizing time burden on the respondent.
Efforts to Identify Duplication
There is no duplicative effort.
Methods to Minimize Burden on Small Business
The COPS Office provides technical assistance to grantees that request support with submitting their report through a help desk. Additionally, the grantee can access the Frequently Asked Questions section on the COPS website. If a grantee does not have internet access, a COPS staff member will complete the report for the grantee over the phone and answer any questions they might have.
Consequences of Less Frequent Collection
Less frequent collection would not allow the COPS Office to obtain the most current information on our grantees’ grant implementation efforts and community policing activities. It would hinder our ability to report on the grantees’ hiring and redeployment progress annually.
Special Circumstances Influencing Collection
There are no special circumstances that would influence the collection of information pertaining to the DAPR.
Reasons for Inconsistencies with 5 CFR 1320.6
There are no inconsistencies with this regulation.
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.
Assurance of Confidentiality
No assurance of confidentiality has been made to respondents.
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.
Estimate of Hour Burden
It is estimated that approximately 100 respondents can complete the report in an average of 1 hour.
1 hour per respondent x 100 respondents = 100 hours
There is no record keeping burden for this collection.
Total Respondent Burden: 100 hours
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.
Estimated Annualized Cost to Federal Government
The estimated annualized cost to the Federal government for a contracting agency to review, compile, and process the DAPRs should require approximately 2.35 hours per report. 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:
2.35 hours per report x 100reports per year = 235 hours
235 hours @ $54.72 per hour per hour = $12,859.20 annually
Reason for Change in Burden
The COPS Office is currently in the process of merging the COPS Hiring and Non-Hiring Progress Reports. The merged COPS Progress Reports will apply to grants that are awarded in FY 2011 and beyond. Therefore, this collection is still needed because the COPS Office still has an active population of hiring grants that were awarded before FY 2011. However, the number of burden hours has been reduced due to the new merged report. Once the pre-FY 2011 COPS grants expire, this collection will no longer apply and we will be able to discontinue this collection.
Publication
This data collection will not be published.
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:
No statistical methods will be used to collect this information.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | SUPPORTING STATEMENT |
| Author | Preferred Customer |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-02-01 |