1110-0004_Support Statement

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

1110-0004

NUMBER OF FULL-TIME LAW ENFORCEMENT EMPLOYEES AS OF OCTOBER 31

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 the FBI Uniform

Crime Reporting (UCR) Program would request data about police employee counts from city,

county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies throughout the country in order to

generate reliable information on police employee counts.

Form 1-711, Number of Full-Time Law Enforcement Employees as of October 31, provides for

the national UCR Program details regarding the number of full-time law enforcement employees,

both officers and civilians.

2. Needs and Uses

The 1-711 is needed in order for law enforcement agencies to submit police employee counts to

the FBI on hard copy. The national UCR Program is able to generate reliable information

annually for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management, nationwide.

The information released is viewed as a guide or an indicator of police strengths, to establish

manpower needs, in both number and makeup, and to provide effective enforcement and

protection. Examples of other agencies' uses are:

a. Local, state, tribal, and federal agencies, domestic and foreign, have used the data

for selected city population groupings to determine standard police strengths.

b. Criminal justice coordinators have used the data in the form of percentage of cities

employing female officers.

c. City and county police agencies have used the data to request assistance from other

departments.

d. The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, utilizes the FBI UCR

Program data in awarding local law enforcement formula grants.

e. The Community Orienting Policing Servicing ACOPS@ Program received FBI UCR

data for the purpose of awarding grant money to law enforcement agencies.

f. City councils, legislators, citizens, organizations, and social scientists have

requested police employee data.

3. Use of Information Technology

Currently, 58 percent of participating law enforcement agencies submit police employee data

electronically. Electronic submissions downloaded from state UCR systems are received via

Law Enforcement Online (LEO) e-mail at [email protected], or received via magnetic media. For

those state agencies unable to submit data electronically, data are received on hard copy. The

FBI UCR Program made this form available as a pdf printable form on the Internet at

www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/reporting-forms

Many states that participate in the FBI UCR program have a centralized repository serving as a

state UCR Program. Several state UCR Programs 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, Acquisition, and Exchange of Identification Records; Appointment of Officials, June 11, 1930.

Another known entity that collects police employee data is the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).

BJS publishes ACensus of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies@. The BJS publishes

these data every four years with 2008 being the most current available. The Bureau of Census

(BOC) also presents police employee data.

The Police Employee data are critical for officer assault rates produced in Crime in the United

States (CIUS) and in Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted publications. Police

Employee data files are one of the most requested data files within the user community. The FBI

UCR Program has successfully collected and published police employee data since the program’s

inception in 1930. In December 1944, a conference was held with the then Division of Statistical

Standards, the BOC, the Department of Labor, and the FBI to discuss collection duplication. The

outcome of that conference was to allow the FBI to continue the data collection as requested by

the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

5. Minimizing Burden on Small Businesses

This information will have no significant impact on small businesses. 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 annual counts of law enforcement employees that are reported by participating

FBI 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 FBI UCR Program participants on an annual basis. The

FBI's UCR Program has established various time frames and deadlines for acquiring the annual

data. There are times when special circumstances may cause an agency to request an extension.

The FBI's UCR Program has the authority to grant these extensions. Participation in the FBI

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 personally

identifiable 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 seek 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

Frequency of responses 1/year

Total annual responses 18,108

Minutes per response 8 minutes

Annual hour burden 2,414 hours

Total number of agencies reporting 18,108

Total annual responses 18,108 x 1 = 18,108

Total annual hour burden 18,108 x 8 / 60 = 4,414 hours

13. Estimate of Cost Burden

There are no direct costs to law enforcement to participate in the FBI 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.

Data Collection and Processing Costs

$461,060

This figure is a cost projection provided by Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS),

Resource Management Section, 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 2,365 to 2,414 which is an

increase of 49 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,

tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies throughout the country. National, regional, and state

data are published in the annual edition of CIUS.

Initial request for police employee data October

Follow-up letter requesting police employee data December, following deadline

Deadline to submit data Late December

Data Processing/Analysis November-February

Publication of data September, of following year/CIUS

17. Display of Expiration Date

The FBI UCR Program is requesting the Office of Management and Budget 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 FBI’s CJIS Division does not request an exception to the certification of this information

collection.