SUPPORTING STATEMENT
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 Attorney General, through the COPS Office, is required by the Act to include a monitoring component in its programs. The COPS Office no longer has need to conduct the 28 C.F.R. Part 23 due to the completion of collecting information from past technology grants that no longer apply as the COPS Office no longer issues these types of grants. Thus, the following collection is the sole component of the Monitoring Information Collection:
Monitoring Request for Documentation
The Monitoring Request for Documentation collection contains a series of questions collecting data regarding the status of COPS hiring grants. Questions are tailored as necessary to the grantee in question (for example, the collection may include a question regarding delinquent progress reports if applicable to the grantee being monitored), with the majority of questions regarding hiring status, staffing levels, and retention of officer positions applicable to every respondent. The Monitoring Request for Documentation collection is used annually for approximately 150 grantees that are selected by the Grants Monitoring Division using a series of risk-based criteria.
Needs and Uses
The information collected in the Monitoring Information Collections will be used to monitor the selected grantees’ use of COPS hiring and equipment grant funds to ensure compliance with applicable program requirements, regulations, and laws.
Efforts to Minimize Burden
The Monitoring Information Collections are designed to be simple, straightforward, and easy to complete. They were developed to standardize and streamline the COPS Office’s monitoring activities by providing grantees with clear guidance and easily completed charts and certification forms. From experience, the COPS Office has learned that it is extremely helpful to grantees if we provide a basic chart for their completion, rather than simply asking an open-ended question regarding their officer hiring history, for example, and expecting them to produce the data in a clear format. The information requested in the Monitoring Request for Documentation is a minimal amount of basic data necessary to monitor compliance with primary grant requirements (and, as noted above, certain questions can be deleted if not applicable to the grantee being monitored to further reduce the burden on the respondent).
With all Monitoring Information Collection instruments, the COPS Office has made every effort to eliminate unnecessary burden on respondents, reduce required burden, and provide simple, easily completed charts or certification forms for responses.
Efforts to Identify Duplication
There is no duplicative effort.
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 agreements are provided to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies.
Consequences of Less Frequent Collection
Less frequent collection is not possible, as the Monitoring Information Collection instrument is generally used only once per grantee (if selected for the particular monitoring).
Special Circumstances Influencing Collection
There are no special circumstances that would influence the collection of information in the Monitoring Information Collections.
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
Information Collection Title |
Annual Number of Responses |
Hours Per Response |
Monitoring Request for Documentation |
150 |
3 (450 hours total) |
Totals |
150 |
450 |
As the chart above illustrates, there may be as many as 150 COPS Office grantees annually who will be required to complete a Monitoring Information Collection.
150 respondents X 3 hours
----------------------------------------------
TOTAL = 450 hours
There is no record keeping burden for this collection.
Total Respondent Burden: 450 hours
Estimate of Cost Burden
Completing the Monitoring Information Collection 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 reviewing and analyzing the projected 150 responses is outlined below. No special equipment, other than currently in-use computing equipment is required. The cost to the Federal Government is as follows:
Monitoring Request for Documentation
2 hours per collection x 150 collections = 300 hours
300 hours @ $17.75 per hour = $5,325
Total Annualized Cost to the Federal Government for reviewing the Monitoring Information Collections = $5,325
Reason for Change in Burden
Although the 28 C.F.R. Part 23 is no longer in use for the Monitoring Collection, the total burden hours has increased from 320 to 450 hours annually. This is due to the Monitoring Request for Documentation instrument being utilized much more frequently in its place (from 40 respondents to 150 annually, with 3 hours to complete each instrument). The Grants Monitoring Division (GMD) is mandated to provide grantee oversight each fiscal year, and this estimate of 150 grantees is a consistent number of respondents that are required to respond.
Publication
This data collection will not be published.
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.
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 | Preferred Customer |
| Last Modified By | Danielle Ouellette |
| File Modified | 2013-01-04 |
| File Created | 2013-01-04 |