1110-0006_ Part B

B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods.

1. The potential respondent universe of the form 1-705 Law Enforcement Officers Killed or Assaulted (LEOKA), OMB No. 1110-0006, includes all United States (U.S.) law enforcement agencies. Out of all U.S. law enforcement agencies 18,233 U.S. law enforcement agencies voluntarily participate in the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. The law enforcement agencies consist of local, county, state, tribal, and federal agencies that correlate to all population group sizes and have many diverse attributes. These agencies include a mix of population density and degrees of urbanization; various compositions of population particularly youth concentration; population mobility with respect to residents’ mobility, commuting patterns, and transient factors; different economic conditions including median income, poverty level, and job availability; areas with different modes of transportation and highway systems; different cultural factors and educational, recreational, and religious characteristics; family conditions with respect to divorce and family cohesiveness; climate; effective strength of law enforcement; policies of other components of the criminal justice system; citizens’ attitudes toward crime; and crime reporting practices of the citizenry. See chart below.

	Population Group	Number of Agencies	Population Covered
Cities	Group I (250,000 inhabitants and more)	75	56,398,148
	Group II (100,000 to 249,999 inhabitants)	209	31,323,512
	Group III (50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants)	473	32,816,692
	Group IV (25,000 to 49,999 inhabitants)	888	30,762,527
	Group V (10,000 to 24,999 inhabitants)	1,929	30,586,844
	Group VI (Less than 10,000 inhabitants)1,2	9,499	26,669,678
Counties	Group VIII (Nonmetropolitan County)2	3,049	30,821,138
	Group IX (Metropolitan County)2	2,111	72,213,378
	Total	18,233	311,591,917

¹ Includes universities and colleges to which no population is attributed.

² Includes state police to which no population is attributed.

Out of the 18,233 agencies that voluntarily report data to the FBI UCR Program approximately 14,644 submit twelve complete months, 1,490 submit between one and eleven months of data, and 2,099 agencies do not submit reports to the FBI UCR Program. See chart below.

Number of months submitted	Number of Agencies
1 month	123
2 months	78
3 months	93
4 months	75
5 months	71
6 months	96
7 months	87
8 months	102
9 months	117
10 months	219
11 months	429
12 months	14,644
Non reporting agencies	2,099
Total	18,233

Of the 18,233 participating agencies, 80 percent respond with twelve months of complete data and based on historical reporting trends, similar response rates are expected in future law enforcement officer killed and assaulted (LEOKA) collections.

2. LEOKA data are collected/received from state UCR Program participants on a monthly basis. The FBI 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 data 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 FBI UCR Program has the authority to grant these extensions. Although the law enforcement community requested that the form be collected on a monthly basis since police records are run on a calendar month, the FBI UCR Program has agencies that submit data quarterly, twice a year, and even once a year. Upon approval, the FBI UCR Program agencies can submit their data at intervals that minimizes the burdens to the agency.

Law enforcement agencies submit LEOKA data to the FBI UCR Program through either the Summary Reporting System (SRS) or the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The SRS is referred to as the “traditional” FBI UCR Program because it began in 1930, and has had few modifications through the years. The NIBRS is used by participating law enforcement agencies to report offenses and relevant details by incident, using up to 59 data elements to collect details about offenses, offenders, victims, property, and arrestees reported to police. Developed in the late 1980’s, the NIBRS was designed as an automated system to modernize UCR, and includes automated checks to ensure data quality.

As the LEOKA data collection is intended to collect all reported LEOKA offenses from law enforcement agencies in the U.S., sampling methodologies are not used. The FBI UCR Program does not apply estimation procedures in the LEOKA data collection. The law enforcement agencies that do not send in LEOKA data are not estimated to compensate for the missing jurisdictions. The FBI UCR Program presents the actual number of reported officers killed and assaulted in the LEOKA publication. For assault data to be included in this publication, law enforcement agencies must have submitted information for all 12 months regarding their sworn officers who were assaulted as well as the number of officers and civilians their agencies employed full-time for the reporting year. However the FBI UCR Program is working in conjunction with other government entities to develop an estimation procedure that will allow the Program to estimate the number of law enforcement officers killed and assaulted at the National level.

3. Response rates are maximized through liaison with state UCR programs. Communications encouraging data submissions occur frequently because of the relationship between the FBI UCR Program, FBI LEOKA staff, and law enforcement agencies. FBI UCR staff have a strong understanding of contextual challenges agencies face in reporting valid and reliable data and regularly work to overcome nonresponse issues when such challenges occur. The mission of the FBI UCR Program is to acquire LEOKA data, establish guidelines for the collection of such data, and publish LEOKA data.

The FBI UCR Program actively liaisons with the FBI LEOKA Program and the national law enforcement agencies to encourage participation in LEOKA data collections. To encourage the submission of data, twice a year a listing of missing reports are sent to state UCR Programs and individual law enforcement agencies and follow up contact is also made to those agencies to encourage the submission of data. FBI UCR state representatives make every effort to assist agencies in submitting 12 months complete data.

With increased marketing of the FBI LEOKA Program’s refreshed LEOKA Officer Safety Awareness Training response rates are expected to increase for agencies to report those law enforcement officers killed or assaulted. The FBI LEOKA Program provides outreach, statistical support, training, research studies, and provides instructional services for an Officer Safety Awareness Training curriculum. Since 2008, over 55,000 public safety professionals have received this eight hour training course in over 620 offerings across the United States and abroad.

Currently, 80 percent of the FBI UCR Program agencies report LEOKA data to the FBI. The FBI is working to help the absent 20 percent of law enforcement agencies participate in the LEOKA data collection with the FBI CJIS Division’s UCR Redevelopment Project (UCRRP). The UCRRP will manage the acquisition, development, and integration of a new information systems solution which affects UCR participating local, state, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies. The UCRRP's goal is to improve UCR efficiency, usability, and maintainability while increasing the value to users of UCR products. The UCRRP will reduce, to the point of elimination, the exchange of printed materials between submitting agencies and the FBI and replace those with electronic submissions. The FBI UCR Program has begun the process of minimizing the exchange of paper for crime reporting purposes. Beginning July 2013, the FBI UCR Program will begin moving submitting agencies away from paper submissions. After a period of transition, the expectation is to have all data interfaces electronically managed, with minimal paper burden on the public. The UCRRP has developed five options for paperless submissions, they are: Extensible Markup Language, Flat File Formats, Online Data Entry, a data extraction from the Law Enforcement National Data Exchange Program, and a FBI provided Excel Workbook and Tally Book. Training also encourages participation in the FBI UCR Program. The FBI has trainers who provide on-site training for any law enforcement agency that participates in the FBI UCR Program. The trainers furnish introductory, intermediate, or advanced courses in data collection procedures and guidelines. In addition, the trainers are available by telephone or e-mail to provide law enforcement agencies with answers to specific questions about classification or scoring. Providing vital links between local law enforcement and the FBI in the conduct of the UCR Program are the Criminal Justice Information Systems Committees of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA). The IACP, as it has since the Program began, represents the thousands of police departments nationwide. The NSA encourages sheriffs throughout the country to participate fully in the Program. Both committees serve in advisory capacities concerning the UCR Program’s operation. The Association of State Uniform Crime Reporting Programs (ASUCRP) focuses on UCR issues within individual state law enforcement associations and also promotes interest in the FBI UCR Program. These organizations foster widespread and responsible use of uniform crime statistics and lend assistance to data contributors when needed.

Although the FBI makes every effort through its editing procedures, training practices, and correspondence to ensure the validity of the data it receives, the accuracy of the statistics depends primarily on the adherence of each contributor to the established standards of reporting. The FBI relies on the integrity of data contributors reporting data, however, Quality Assurance Reviews are conducted by the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division’s Audit Unit on a triennial basis. The results of the audits are not used to adjust crime data, but are used to educate reporting agencies on compliance with national UCR guidelines.

4. The FBI has conducted the monthly LEOKA information collection since 1970 with high rates of response and has specific plans to further improve participation; proposed initiatives are described in Part B #3. There have not been any changes to the current LEOKA form that would need to be tested. No comments or suggestions of problems with the form have been reported through the CJIS Advisory Policy Board (APB) Working Groups, UCR Subcommittee, CJIS APB, or the ASUCRP which meet frequently throughout each year and are dedicated to improving the collection, use, and utility of crime data as reported through the FBI UCR Program and all state and local crime reporting programs.

5. SA Michelle S. Klimt

LESS Chief

[email protected]

304-625-3690

Amy C. Blasher

CSMU Chief

[email protected]

304-625-4840

Loretta A. Simmons

Supervisory Technical Information Specialist

[email protected]

304-625-3535

Patricia S. Hanning

Technical Information Specialist

[email protected]

304-625-2957