SUPPORTING STATEMENT
Part A. Justification:
1. Necessity of Information Collection.
On September 13, 1994, President Clinton signed into law the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Pub. L. 103-322). Title I of the "crime bill," the Public Safety Partnership and Community Policing Act of 1994 (the ct), 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.
As part of this grant making process, the Attorney General has the authority to establish grant programs, as well as any procedures necessary to administer grants under these programs.
The COPS Office revised the currently approved collection in a number of ways to improve the form for the public. The name of the currently approved collection (“Universal Hiring Program Extension Request Worksheet”) was changed to “COPS Extension Request Worksheet” to standardize the forms use across all COPS Office grant programs. The format of the form was also updated.
2. Needs and Uses
The COPS Extension Request Form will be used for in conjunction with all COPS Office grant programs. The two-page form allows grantees to request an extension of time for a particular grant by providing the status of its hiring/project activities, describing the reason the project cannot be implemented or completed on time, and providing current financial information. This information is used to determine whether the grantee has made adequate progress in hiring additional law enforcement officers/implementing their project and has sufficient funds available for the requested extension period. The form provides a summary of critical grant information: the particular program applied for, the number of officers awarded (if applicable), the award amount, and the start date of the grant. It also requests grantees to indicate any changes to the agency’s contact information such as the Law Enforcement Executive’s name and title, address, and phone and fax numbers. This information is requested to ensure that the database for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) contains the most current information on the grantee.
3. Efforts to Minimize Burden
The proposed COPS Extension Request Worksheet is agency-specific and is generated electronically. The form is sent to agencies whose grant will expire in 90 days. COPS has minimized the burden on the grantee by requesting only the information it needs to determine the validity of the grantee’s request. The COPS Office does not currently have the capacity to receive this form electronically, but may plan to develop this form on-line in the future.
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. The overwhelming majority of COPS Office grants and cooperative agreement applications are received from state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies.
6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection
This information is collected only near the end of each grant term. The grantee can receive multiple extensions over the life of the grant, but are only completing this form if necessary at the end of the grant term. 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 Extension Request Form.
8. Reasons for Inconsistencies with 5 CFR 1320.6
There are no inconsistencies with this regulation. The 60 and 30 day notices were published and the COPS Office received no comments.
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
The Extension Request Form will be mailed to all State and local law enforcement agencies whose grants will expire within 90 days. The COPS Office estimates that approximately 2,500 law enforcement departments will receive this form annually.
The estimated hour burden to respondents for completing the above referenced proposal kit is 30 minutes for each respondent.
.5 hours per respondent x 2,500 respondents = 1,250 hours
COPS estimates a minimal record keeping burden for respondents.
1,250 total burden hours at $30 dollars per hour = $37,500 cost burden for all respondents collectively on an annual basis.
13. Estimate of Cost Burden
Completing this Extension Request Form will not generate any costs other than those associated with the applicants’ time and minimal mailing/printing costs. We estimate these costs to be about .50 dollars for returning the form to the COPS Office. The estimated cost if respondents mail the form would be:
2,500 respondents X .50 dollars = $1,250 total annual cost burden
14. Estimated Annualized Cost to Federal Government
The estimated annualized cost to the Federal government for reviewing and processing the projected 2,500 responses should require approximately 30 minutes per form. No special equipment, other than currently in-use personal computing equipment, is required. The total cost to the Federal government is estimated as follows:
Extension Request Worksheet costs:
.5 hours per form x 2,500 forms = 1,250 hours
1,250 hours @ $20 per hour = $25,000 for review
15. Reason for Change in Burden
The burden decrease from 2700 respondents to 2500 respondents annually for this ICR has occurred due to number of grantees being awarded funding decreasing since the last update to this collection. The form still takes about .5 hours to complete, but the decrease in approximately 200 responses has caused the burden hours to know be 1250 instead of the previously approved 1350.
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.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | SUPPORTING STATEMENT |
| Author | karen beckma |
| Last Modified By | Danielle Ouellette |
| File Modified | 2012-08-01 |
| File Created | 2012-08-01 |