Supporting Statement A

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

1110-0008

MONTHLY RETURN OF ARSON OFFENSES KNOWN TO LAW ENFORCEMENT

A 3-year extension of this currently approved collection is requested with a non-substantive change. This change includes:

1. Delete the expiration date.

2. OMB requests that these words be put back onto the form which were previously removed. At the beginning of the second sentence, add, Even though you are not required to respond,

A. Justification.

1. Necessity of Information Collection

Under the authority of Title 28, Section 534, U.S. Code, Acquisition, Preservation, and Exchange of Identification Records; Appointment of Officials, April 23, 1990, and the enactment of the fiscal year 1979, Department of Justice Authorization Bill S. 3151, the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program would request data about arson offenses from city, county, state, federal, and tribal law enforcement agencies throughout the country in order to generate reliable information on arson.

The Form 1-725, Monthly Return of Arson Offenses Known to Law Enforcement, provides for the national UCR Program details regarding structural property, whether it be uninhabited, abandoned, or normally not in use; mobile property, as motor vehicles, trailers, airplanes, or boats; or other types of property, such as crops, timber, or signs and the form provides an estimated value of property damage for each arson reported.

2. Needs and Uses

The 1-725 form is necessary in order for law enforcement agencies to submit arson data to the FBI on hard copy. The national UCR Program is able to generate reliable information on arson crimes. Arson data serve as a valuable resource to city, county, state, federal, and tribal law enforcement agencies, as well as Academe, other government agencies, public, and media. These arson data are of invaluable use for research and statistical analysis. Examples of agencies’ uses are:

a. The FBI serves as the national clearinghouse for storage of all arson statistics, therefore, these data are available upon request to any requester.

b. The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJS), utilizes the UCR Program data in awarding local law enforcement formula grants.

1. Annual UCR data are provided to the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. This central repository serves as a single facility from which colleges/universities can obtain social science data.

3. Use of Information Technology

Currently, 89 percent of participating law enforcement agencies submit this form electronically. Electronic submissions are received via magnetic media and/or Law Enforcement Online, (LEO) e-mail [email protected]. The UCR Program made this form available as a pdf printable form on the Internet at www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/formssummary.htm

Many states that participate in the UCR program have a centralized repository serving as a state UCR Program. Several state UCR Program's have established electronic communications with their law enforcement agencies throughout their state. Agencies submit data to their state UCR Program and that state UCR Program subsequently forwards it to the FBI.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

This information collection was authorized in direct response to the enactment of Title 28, Section 534, U.S. Code and the enactment of the fiscal year 1979, Department of Justice Authorization Bill S. 3151. The FBI’s UCR Program is the only agency collecting extensive data on arson.

5. Minimizing Burden on Small Businesses

This information will have no significant impact on small business. No small business will be affected by this collection.

6. Consequences of Not Conducting or Less Frequent Collection

In order to serve as the national repository for crime reporting and to produce a reliable dataset, the FBI collects monthly statistics on arson that are reported by participating UCR Program contributors. There is an ever-increasing need for timely and accurate data dissemination by the FBI to assist our partners in law enforcement.

7. Special Circumstances

All data are collected/received from the UCR Program participants on a monthly basis. The FBI’s UCR Program has established various time frames and deadlines for acquiring the monthly data. Monthly reports/submissions should be received at the FBI by the seventh day after the close of each month. Annual deadlines are also designated in order to collect/assess receipt of monthly submissions. There are times when special circumstances may cause an agency to request an extension. The UCR Program has the authority to grant these extensions. Participation in the UCR Program is voluntary.

8. Public Comments and Consultations

The 60 and 30 day notices have been submitted and no public comments were received.

9. Provision of Payments or Gifts to Respondents

The FBI’s UCR Program does not provide any payment or gift to respondents.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality

All FBI UCR Program information collections are held confidential in accordance with Title 42, U.S. Code, Section 3789(g). Even though this information collection does not contain personal identifier information that may reveal the identity of an individual it is obtained from public agencies and are, therefore, in the public domain.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

The information collection does not collect information of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimate of Respondent’s Burden

The estimated hour burden on the respondent for this data collection is as follows:

Number of respondents 18,108

Number of responses per respondent 12 times per year

Total annual responses 217,296

Minutes per response 9

Annual hour burden 32,594

Total number of agencies reporting 18,108

Total annual responses 18,108 x 12 = 217,296

Total annual hour burden 217,296 x 9/60 = 32,594

13. Estimate of Cost Burden

There are no direct costs to law enforcement to participate in the UCR Program other than their time to respond. With the renewal of this form, there are no revisions of a technical nature; therefore, respondents are not expected to incur any capital, start-up, or system maintenance costs associated with this information collection.

14. Cost to Federal Government

It is difficult to estimate the annual cost to the federal government under the clearance request. The following are generalized projections based upon prior collection activity as well as activities anticipated over the next 3 years.

Arson Data Collection and Processing Costs

$461,060

This figure is a cost projection provided by CJIS Financial Management Unit

15. Reason for Change in Burden

There is no increase in burden on the individual respondents; however, the overall annual burden hours have increased. This is an adjustment; an increase from 20,465 to 32,594 which is an increase of 12,129. and is attributable to the increase in the number of respondents.

16. Anticipated Publication Plan and Schedule

Published data are derived from data submissions furnished to the FBI from local, county, state, federal, and tribal law enforcement agencies throughout the country. National, regional, and state data are published in the annual edition of CIUS.

Request for missing Jan-Jun data August and September

Request for missing 12 month data February and March, following year

Deadline to submit data mid-March

Data processing/analysis July-May

Publication of data CIUS/September following year

17. Display of Expiration Date

The UCR Program is requesting OMB to not display an expiration date on the hard copy form. The program mails this form to twenty thousand individual law enforcement agencies, 49 state programs, and an undetermined number of individuals. Administratively, it would be extremely difficult to remove all of the old forms. In addition, some individuals may obtain copies of the form and wait an extensive period of time before submitting the form to us. It would be impossible to know which individuals may possess an older form. Therefore, it would not be practical for a date to be displayed. This would also alleviate the disposal of tens of thousands of expired forms when the form itself is not changed during the renewal process.

18. Exception to the Certification Statement

The UCR Program does not request an exception to the certification of this information collection.

B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods.

The UCR Program does not employ statistical methods when collecting this information.