COPS Application Package

[FRONT COVER]

COPS FY2013 Application Guide:
<Program Name>

Eligibility

Specific eligibility requirements will be inserted here.

All awards are subject to the availability of appropriated funds and any modifications or additional requirements that may be imposed by law.

Deadline

All applications must be submitted by <Insert Date and Time >.

Contact Information

For assistance with the requirements of this initiative, please contact the COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770 or via e-mail at [email protected].

This application must be submitted through Grants.gov. For technical assistance with submitting the application, please call the Grants.gov Customer Service Hotline at 800.518.4726.

[INSIDE FRONT COVER]

COPS FY<Year> Application Guide:
<Program Name>

The COPS Application Guide is designed to assist applicants in applying for COPS grant programs. This Guide includes general information on the administrative and legal requirements governing the <Program Name>, as well as detailed program-specific information.

For more information about COPS grants, please call the COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770.

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

Two Constitution Square

145 N Street, N.E.

Washington, DC 20530

COPS Online: www.cops.usdoj.gov

January 2013

Contents [placeholder, generated in layout]

OVERVIEW 1

COPS Office Overview 1

<Specific Program Name> Overview 2

REGISTRATION 3

DEADLINE: APPLICATION 3

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS 3

PROGRAM-SPECIFIC INFORMATION 3

Program Goals 3

Length of Grant Term, Maximum Federal Share, & Local Share Requirements,

and Hiring Categories 4

Federal Funding: Allowable and Unallowable Costs 4

Allowable Costs: Fundable Requests…………………………………………………………4

Unallowable Costs: Requests Will NOT Be Funded 6

Monitoring, Reporting, and Evaluation Requirements—All programs 7

PERFORMANCE MEASURES 9

HOW TO APPLY 10

Electronic Submission of the SF-424 and the <<program name>> Application via

Grants.gov and the COPS Office Website 10

Obtaining a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS)Number 10

Registering with the System for Award Management (SAM) 12

Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) ID Number 12

Helpful Online Resources 12

Electronic Submission of Applications via the COPS Website 13

Audit Requirement 13

Civil Rights 13

Section 508 of the Rehabilitiation Act………………………………………………………………    13   

Grant Terms and Conditions 14

I. & II. Assurances & Certifications 14

III. Disclosure of Lobbying Activities 14

IV. Nonsupplanting Requirement 15

V. Procurement & Sole Source Justification 15

VI. Criminal Intelligence Systems/28 C.F.R. Part 23 Compliance (if applicable) 17

VII. Certification to Mitigate Possible Adverse Health,
Safety, & Environmental Impacts (if applicable) 17

VIII. Community Policing Self Assessment Tool (CP SAT)…………………………… 17

IX. Central Contractor Registration (CCR) and Universal Identifier Requirements… 17

            X. Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act

                (FFATA)-Reporting Subaward and Executive Compensation Information 18

    Suspension or Termination of Funding 18

Required Application Documents and Sections for <program name> Applications 19

COPS APPLICATION ATTACHMENT TO SF-424 20

What An Application Must Include 20

          Required Application Documents and Sections for the COPS <<program>>………….

General Information…………………………………………………………………………………20

Instruction: Application for Federal Assistance SF-424…………………………………………20

Section 1: COPS Program Request 20

Section 2: Agency Eligibility Information 20

A. CHP Eligibility Questions 20

B. SOS Eligibility Questions 20

Section 3: General Agency Information 20

A. Applicant ORI Number 20

B. Applicant Data Universal Numeric System (DUNS) Number 20

C. System for Award Management (SAM) 20

D. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) ID 20

E. Cognizant Federal Agency 20

F. Fiscal Year 20

20

G. Law Enforcement Agency Sworn Force Information 20

H. Civilian Staffing……………………………………………………………………………    20

I.    U.S. Department of Justice Funding……………………………………..………………20

    Section 4:    Executive Information 21

A. Law Enforcement Executive/Agency Executive Information 21

B. Government Executive/Financial Official Information 21

C. CAP Contact Information…………………………………………………………………..21

Section 5:    COPS Officer Request Form 21

A. COPS Hiring Program Officer Request 21

B. Child Sexual Predator Program (CSPP) Officer Request 21

Section 6:    Law Enforcement & Community Policing Strategy 21

A. Non-Hiring Applicants 21

B. CHP Applicants Only 22

Section 7:    Need for Federal Assistance 23

A. Service Population

B. Explanation of Need for Federal Assistance 23

C. Fiscal Health (if applicable) 23

D. Property/Violent Crime………………………………………………………………….… 23

Section 8: Continuation of Project after Federal Funding Ends 23

A. For COPS Grants with Retention Plan Requirement 23

B. For COPS Grant with No Retention Plan Requirement 23

Section 9: School Safety Assessment – Applies to SOS applicants only 23

Applicants Who Have Conducted School Safety Assessments
Within the Last Three Years (Questions 1-5) 24

Applicants Who Have Not Conducted School Safety Assessments
Within the Last Three Years (Questions 6-11) 25

Section 10:    Executive Summary 26

Section 11:    Project Description (Narrative) 26

A. Problem Identification and Justification 27

B. Project Goals and Objectives 27

C. Community Policing Strategies/Crime Prevention Activities 27

D. Implementation Plan 27

E. Evaluation Plan/Effectiveness of Program 28

F. Project Description (Narrative) 28

Section 12:    Official Partner(s) Contact Information (if applicable) 28

Section 13:    Application Attachments (if applicable)    28

Section 14: Budget Detail Worksheets (Instructions) 28

Section 15: Assurances and Certifications 28

A. Assurances 28

B. Certifications 28

Section 16:    Disclosure of Lobbying Activities 29

Section 17: Reviews and Certifications

29

Section 18:    Application Data Verification 30

APPENDIXES 31

Appendix A: Glossary of COPS Program Terms 31

Appendix B: Intergovernmental Review Process, Points of Contact by State 35

Appendix C: Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA):
            Reporting Subaward and Executive Compensation Award Term 35

    Appendix D: System for Award Management (SAM) and Universal Identifier Requirements

                            Award Terms……………………………………………………………………………37

    Appendix E: Step-by-Step Instructions for Two-Part Application Submission Process………

PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT NOTICE 39

<Program Name>

OVERVIEW

COPS Office Overview

The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (the COPS Office) is the component of the U.S. Department of Justice responsible for advancing the practice of community policing by the nation’s state, local, territory, and tribal law enforcement agencies through information and grant resources. Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime. Rather than simply responding to crimes once they have been committed, community policing concentrates on preventing crime and eliminating the atmosphere of fear it creates. Earning the trust of the community and making those individuals stakeholders in their own safety enables law enforcement to better understand and address both the needs of the community and the factors that contribute to crime.

The COPS Office awards grants to state, local, territory, and tribal law enforcement agencies to hire and train community policing professionals, acquire and deploy cutting-edge crime-fighting technologies, and develop and test innovative policing strategies. COPS Office funding also provides training and technical assistance to community members and local government leaders and all levels of law enforcement. The COPS Office has produced and compiled a broad range of information resources that can help law enforcement better address specific crime and operational issues, and help community leaders better understand how to work cooperatively with their law enforcement agency to reduce crime.

Since 1994, the COPS Office has invested more than $14 billion to add community policing officers to the nation’s streets, enhance crime fighting technology, support crime prevention initiatives, and provide training and technical assistance to help advance community policing. By the end of FY 2009, the COPS Office had funded approximately 124,000 additional officers to more than 13,600 of the nation’s 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the country in small and large jurisdictions alike.    More than 600,000 law enforcement personnel, community members, and government leaders have been trained through COPS Office-funded training organizations.    The COPS Office has distributed more than 6.6 million topic-specific publications, training curricula, white papers, and resource CDs.

Additional information regarding the COPS Office can be found at www.cops.usdoj.gov.

<Specific Program Name> Overview —Sample Text – will change with each program.

The COPS Hiring Program (CHP) provides funding directly to law enforcement agencies to hire and/or rehire career law enforcement officers in an effort to increase their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts.

2013 CHP grants will cover up to 75 percent of the approved entry-level salary and fringe benefits of each newly-hired and/or rehired, full-time sworn career law enforcement officer over the    3-year (36 months) grant period, with a minimum 25 percent local cash match requirement and maximum federal share of $125,000 per officer position. CHP grant funding will be based on your agency’s current entry-level salary and fringe benefits for full-time sworn officers. Any additional costs for higher than entry-level salaries and fringe benefits will be the responsibility of the grantee agency. All agencies’ requests will be capped at no more than 5 percent of their actual sworn force strength as reported on the date of application, up to a maximum of 25 officers. Agencies with a service population of 1 million or above may apply for up to 25 officer positions; however, agencies with a service population less than 1 million may apply for up to 15 officer positions.    The request of any agency with a sworn force strength less than or equal to 20 will be capped at one officer. Funding under this program may be used to:

• Hire new officers, which includes filling existing officer vacancies that are no longer funded in your agency’s budget. These positions must be in addition to your current budgeted (funded) level of sworn officer positions, and the officers must be hired on or after the official grant award start date as it is listed on your agency’s award document.

• Rehire officers laid off by any jurisdiction as a result of state, local, or Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) budget cuts. The rehired officers must be rehired on or after the official grant award start date as it appears on your agency’s award document. Documentation must be maintained showing the date(s) that the positions were laid off and rehired.

• Rehire officers who are (at the time of application) currently scheduled to be laid off on a specific future date as a result of state, local, or BIA budget cuts. Grantees will be required to continue funding the positions with local funding until the date(s) of the scheduled lay-offs. The dates of the scheduled lay-offs and the number of positions affected must be identified in the CHP application. In addition, documentation must be maintained detailing the dates and reason(s) for the lay-offs. Furthermore, agencies awarded will be required to maintain documentation that demonstrates that the scheduled lay-offs are occurring for local economic reasons unrelated to the availability of CHP grant funds; such documentation may include local council meeting minutes, memoranda, notices, or orders discussing the lay-offs, budget documents ordering jurisdiction-wide budget cuts, and/or notices provided to the individual officers regarding the lay-offs.

An applicant may request funding in one or more of the above-referenced hiring categories under CHP. CHP grant awards will be made for officer positions requested in each of these three categories and recipients of CHP awards are required to use awarded funds for the specific categories awarded. If your agency receives a CHP grant and after receiving the grant your agency needs to change one or more of the funded hiring categories it received funding under, your agency must request a post-award grant modification and must receive prior approval before spending CHP funding. To obtain information on modifying a CHP grant award, please contact the COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770.

An applicant may not reduce its existing current fiscal year budget for sworn officers just to take advantage of the CHP grant. Any budget cut must be unrelated to the receipt of CHP grant funds to avoid a violation of the COPS statutory nonsupplanting requirement.

The nonsupplanting requirement means that COPS grant funds must be used to supplement (increase) state, local, or BIA funds that would have been dedicated toward the grant purpose if federal funding had not been awarded. CHP grant funds must not be used to replace (supplant) local funds that agencies otherwise would have devoted to sworn officer hiring. The hiring or rehiring of officers under CHP must be in addition to, and not in lieu of, officers who otherwise would have been hired or rehired with local funds. For additional information on the COPS nonsupplanting requirement as it applies to CHP, please refer to the nonsupplanting FAQs at www.cops.usdoj.gov/Default.asp?Item=2282.

Furthermore, all grant recipients must retain any CHP-funded officer positions awarded for at least 12 months after the 36 months of federal funding has ended for each position. Applicants are required to affirm in their CHP grant application that their agency plans to retain any additional officer positions awarded following the expiration of the grant, and identify their planned source(s) of retention funding.

Please be advised that a hold may be placed on any application if it is deemed that the applicant agency is not in good standing on other U.S. Department of Justice grants, has other grant compliance issues that would make the applicant agency ineligible to receive COPS funding, and/or is not cooperating with an ongoing Department of Justice grant review or audit. A hold may also be placed on any application if it is deemed that the applicant agency is not in compliance with federal civil rights laws and/or is not cooperating with an ongoing federal civil rights investigation.

Misuse of COPS funds and/or failure to comply with all COPS grant requirements may result in suspension or termination of grant funds, the repayment of grant funds, and/or other remedies available by law.

Under the False Claim Act, any credible evidence that a person has submitted a false claim or has committed a criminal or civil violation of laws pertaining to fraud, conflict of interest, bribery, gratuity or similar misconduct involving COPS funds may be referred to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The OIG may be contacted at [email protected], www.usdoj.gov/oig/FOIA/hotline.htm, and 800.869.4499.

REGISTRATION—Sample Text – will change with each program.

All FY 2013 CHP applicants are required to have a valid ORI number. The ORI number is assigned by the FBI and is your agency’s unique identifier. Please contact the COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770 to verify your agency’s ORI number. If you do not have an ORI number, a COPS Office Response Center Specialist will assign one to you for the purpose of tracking your grant application. This is required before you begin your application on Grants.gov.

Additionally, the federal government requires that all applicants for federal grants and cooperative agreements—with the exception of individuals other than sole proprietors—have a DUNS number and be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) database prior to submitting an application. See “Section 3: General Agency Information” in this guide for more information regarding DUNS and SAM.

Completing an application under the CHP program is a two-step process. Applicants are first required to register via www.grants.gov and complete an SF-424, the government-wide standard application form for federal assistance. Once the SF-424 has been submitted, you will receive an e-mail from the COPS Office with instructions on completing the second part of the CHP application through the COPS Office Online Application System. If you have not renewed your COPS Office Account Access information, contact the COPS Office Response Center at [email protected] or 800.421.6770.

It is strongly recommended that applicants register immediately on www.grants.gov. In addition, applicants are strongly encouraged to complete the SF-424 and Section 1 on Grants.gov as quickly as possible. Any delays in registering with Grants.gov or submitting the SF-424 may result in insufficient time for processing your application through Grants.gov or the COPS Office Online Application System.

Once you have registered and submitted your SF-424 through www.grants.gov, you will receive an e-mail within one business day with instructions for completing the second part of the CHP application process, which is the COPS Application Attachment to the SF-424 through the COPS Office Online Application System.

For technical assistance with submitting the SF-424, call Grants.gov Customer Service Hotline at 800.518.4726, e-mail [email protected] or consult the Grants.gov Organization Registration User Guide at http://www07.grants.gov/assets/OrgRegUserGuide.pdf. See “How to Apply” in this guide for more information.

For technical assistance with submitting the Online application via the COPS website, please call 800.421.6770 or send questions via e-mail to [email protected]. See “How to Apply” in this guide for more information.

DEADLINE: APPLICATION

Applications for this program must be submitted online via the COPS website (www.cops.usdoj.gov) by <Date and Time>.

See “How to Apply” for more information.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS—Sample Text – will change with program-specific requirements.

The CHP grant program is an open solicitation. All local, state, and tribal law enforcement agencies that have primary law enforcement authority are eligible to apply. An agency with primary law enforcement authority is defined as the first responder to calls for service for all types of criminal incidents within the jurisdiction served. Please note that CHP applicants must have a police department which is operational as of <        >, which is the close of this application, or receive services through a new or existing contract for law enforcement services. If funds under this program are to be used as part of a written contracting agreement for law enforcement services (e.g., a town which contracts with a neighboring sheriff’s department to receive services), the agency wishing to receive law enforcement services must be the legal applicant in this application (although we will ask you to supply some information about the contract service provider in Section 7 of this application).

For additional information, please contact your COPS Grant Program Specialist by calling the COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770.

PROGRAM-SPECIFIC INFORMATION

All awards are subject to the availability of appropriated funds and any modifications or additional requirements that may be imposed by law.

Program Goals—Sample Text – will change with program-specific requirements

The purpose of this CPD program is to advance the practice of community policing in law enforcement agencies through training and technical assistance, the development of innovative community policing strategies, applied research, guidebooks, and best practices that are national in scope. Applicants must identify those goals that will be directly accomplished if funding is awarded. It is not expected or anticipated that the proposed project accomplishes more than one of the following goals:

1.    Develop Knowledge: Develop new knowledge or leverage existing knowledge about community policing activities and strategies that show promise.

          2.      Increase Awareness: Increase the number of agencies/individuals who are aware of the most effective commu-      nity policing strategies.

3.    Increase Skills/Abilities: Increase the skills and/or abilities of law enforcement agencies, relevant stakeholders, and/or individuals to engage in proven community policing practices.

4.    Increase Practice: Increase the number of law enforcement agencies, relevant stakeholders, and/or individuals using proven community policing practices.

5.      Institutionalize Practice: Increase the number of law enforcement agencies, relevant stakeholders, and/or     individuals that systematically use and integrate proven community policing strategies as part of their routine business and will continue to engage in these

practices for the foreseeable future.

Length of Grant Term, Maximum Federal Share, Local Share Requirements and Hiring Categories

The COPS <Program Name> grant is <# of years> years in duration, and there <”is a” or “is no”> local match. The amount of funding available to specific grantees is designated in the <Insert Appropriation> Act, <Year> (P.L. <insert #>).

The COPS Office will review reasonable requests made for no-cost time extensions in the event that all funds granted have not been expended within the <# of years> grant period. Extension worksheets will be sent to law enforcement departments approximately 90 days prior to the award end date. Any extensions granted will be for time only, and not for additional funding. Please be advised that all extension requests must be received by the official grant award end date.

At present, this is a one-time funding opportunity and COPS expects that all items, personnel, and/or training requested will be purchased or hired and the project implemented within the <# of years> three-year grant period.

Federal Funding: Allowable and Unallowable Costs—Sample Text – will change with each program

All items requested will be considered on a case-by-case basis during the budget review process. Items under the initiative must be purchased using the legislative guidelines established by the <Insert Appropriation> Act, <Year> (P.L. <insert #>).Additionally, each item must programmatically link to the anti-<program name> activities described in your proposal. To the greatest extent practicable, all equipment and products purchased with these funds must be American-made.

Allowable Costs: Fundable Requests—Sample Text – will change with each program

Applications should include a clear and demonstrated plan for implementing comprehensive anti-<program name> strategies. Each grant application must explain how the proposed project would fit into an overall effort to increase and/or enhance <program name> reduction efforts. All items under this <program name> grant must be purchased using the legislative intent established by the Omnibus Appropriations Act, <Year (P.L. insert #>.

Budget requests may be made in the categories of:

• Sworn Officer Positions (Salaries and Benefits): Sworn officer salary and fringe benefits apply to new, full-time entry-level sworn career law enforcement officers not already funded in the applicant’s local budget. A “career law enforcement officer” is a person hired on a permanent basis who is authorized by law, or by a state, local, or tribal agency, to engage in or oversee the prevention, detection, and/or investigation of violations of criminal laws. Officers must be hired on or after the award start date, and positions must directly relate to the <program name> project. Officers previously employed by your agency may be re-hired using <program name> grant funds, but funding requests must be limited to your agency's entry-level salary and benefits. [Please note: Overtime for sworn officers engaging in <program name>-related activities is an allowable cost; however, any overtime expenses requested for either sworn officers or civilian positions must be listed in the “Other Costs” section of your application’s budget proposal.]

• Civilian/Non-sworn Personnel (Salaries and Benefits):    Civilian salary and fringe benefits apply to new personnel not already funded in the applicant’s local budget.    Staff must be hired on or after the award start date, and positions must directly relate to the <program name> project.    Examples of allowable personnel and fringe benefits costs include those for prosecutors (directly for <program name> prosecution), civilian <program name> project coordinators, or <program name>/drug problem analysts.   

• Equipment/Technology: Equipment and/or technology costs shall provide agencies with the ability to purchase new or enhance existing equipment exclusively related to <program name> prevention, treatment, enforcement, or drug intelligence sharing.    All items requested must be clearly linked to the enhancement or implementation of the <program name> project.

• Supplies:    Generally, supplies include any materials that are expended or consumed during the course of the <program name> project.    Such costs may include training manuals, paper, printer ink, pens, postage, etc.

• Travel/Training:    Travel/training costs include grant-related travel costs for the grantee or other (non-grantee) individuals to attend <program name>-related training and technical assistance conferences, seminars, classes, or to visit a site specified in the application.    Expenses for transportation, lodging, meals, and incidental expenses (if travel is more than 50 miles from the program location) will be reviewed in accordance with applicable guidelines as part of the application process.

• Contracts/Consultants: Contract/consultant costs may include costs to provide one-time training to staff for equipment operation/usage, and contracting/consulting services that provide such things as needs analysis, installation, and testing.    Compensation for individual consultant services procured under a COPS grant must be reasonable and allocable in accordance with OMB cost principles, and consistent with that paid for similar services in the marketplace.    Unless otherwise approved by the COPS Office, consultant rates will be based on the salary a consultant receives from his or her primary employer, as applicable, up to $550 per day.    For consultant or contractor rates which exceed $550 per day, the COPS Office requires written justification if the consultants or contractors are hired through a noncompetitive bidding process and grantees must receive COPS Office approval of those rates before drawing down funds. Determinations will be made on a case-by-case basis.

• Other Costs:    Other costs may include such items as software and prepaid warranties or maintenance agreements (not to exceed 36 months), overtime costs for sworn officers engaging in <program name>-related activities, or other miscellaneous items that have a direct correlation to the overall success of a grantee’s project objectives (such as awareness campaigns) and are necessary for the project to reach full implementation.

Departments will be notified of any points of clarification the COPS Office may require.
Requests may be made only for items or positions that are not otherwise budgeted with state, local, or Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) funds, and would not be funded in the absence of the <program name> grant.

In addition, any publication material developed and/or purchased with federal grant funds must contain the following designation: “This project was supported by Grant #___________, awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. The opinions contained herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the author(s) or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.”

Unallowable Costs: Requests Will NOT Be Funded —Sample Text – will change with each program

The items listed below are generally considered to be unallowable, and may only be funded under extremely limited and extenuating circumstances and at the discretion of the COPS Office based on clear demonstration of a direct link between the requested item and the applicant's <program name> project. Before including any of these items in your project proposal, please contact your Grant Program Specialist at 800.421.6770.

This is not an inclusive list, and items not listed below will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The COPS Office reserves the right to deny funding for items that may not be included on this list. Agencies are expected to request items that show a direct link between the requested item and the applicant’s <program name> project.    All requests must contribute directly to the specific purpose of the grant project are relate to the parameters stipulated in the <Insert Appropriation> Act, <Year> (P.L. <insert #>).

PERSONNEL:

• Salaries and benefits of existing employees

• Salaries and benefits of grant writers or other staff who do not directly contribute to the implementation of the program

• Please note:    Restrictions on overtime costs are listed under “Supplies and Other Costs”

EQUIPMENT/TECHNOLOGY:

• Animals

• Bicycles

• Body wire equipment

• Bulletproof vests and accessories

• Bunker shield(s)

• Cellular or satellite phone airtime

• Communications towers

• Construction and renovation costs

• Dictation systems

• Funding for buy-back and/or confidential informant purposes

• General police vehicles (including patrol cars and leased vehicles)

• Handcuffs, weapons, and ammunition (including training ammunition)

• Office equipment (copiers, fax machines, etc.)

• Office furniture (desks, file cabinets, etc.)

• Office rental/lease space

• Pagers (including service time)

• Phone lines and voice-mail systems

• Prisoner transport vehicles

• Radar guns/equipment

• Standard issue police vehicle equipment (including light bars, cages, and siren packages)

• Standard or dress uniforms / uniform accessories

• Televisions / VCRs / DVD players / projectors

TRAVEL/TRAINING:

• Local travel costs (lodging, meals, per diem, or transportation costs) within a 50-mile radius of the program location

• Mileage reimbursement, rental cars, parking fees, and/or taxi fare for local travel

• Meals and/or refreshment costs associated with meetings

• Training in topics that are not directly linked to the <program name> grant

CONTRACTS/CONSULTANTS:

• Contractual agreements that cannot be directly linked to the <program name> grant

• Maintenance and/or service contracts that extend the life of the grant period (multi-year contracts and extended warranties are allowable, but must be paid in full within the initial grant period)

• Any consultant fees in excess of $550 per day must receive prior written approval from the COPS Office, contingent upon written justification by the grantee, if the consultant or contractor is hired through a noncompetitive bidding process

SUPPLIES AND OTHER COSTS:

• Standard office supplies not directly related to the <program name> grant

• Indirect costs

• Overtime for personnel not directly involved in the department’s project and that which exceeds 50% of the total award budget

• No more than ten percent of the total award amount may be budgeted for evaluation purposes

This program will not provide funding for any positions or items which are funded in the applicant agency’s budget with other sources of funding (state, local, or BIA).    You may apply only for otherwise unfunded positions or items to supplement your agency’s law enforcement budget.

Please note:    The COPS Office will not fund costs associated with the cleanup of clandestine drug laboratories utilizing contractors who are not qualified to dispose of hazardous waste and/or where the applicant does not have DEA-equivalent disposal resources in place to include contractor oversight plans and procedures.    Please refer to the Environmental Assessment material on our website at www.cops.usdoj.gov for further explanation of qualified contractors.

Monitoring, Reporting, and Evaluation Requirements—All programs

Federal regulations require that any financial assistance from the federal government be monitored to ensure that those funds are spent properly. Awarded agencies will be responsible for submitting Programmatic Progress Reports and quarterly Financial Status Reports. Programmatic Progress Reports will be required quarterly for special agencies (e.g., profit or non-profit, private or public university/college, state associations, etc.) and annually for traditional law enforcement agencies.    All agencies will be required to submit a final closeout report. In addition, the COPS Office is interested in tracking the progress of its programs and the development of its grantees’ community policing plans. Therefore, all <program name> grantees will be required to participate in grant monitoring activities of the U.S. Department of Justice, including but not limited to the COPS Office, the Office of the Inspector General, or any entity designated by COPS.

The COPS Office Monitoring staff may take a number of monitoring approaches, such as site visits, office-based grant reviews, and periodic surveys to gather information. COPS may seek information including, but not limited to, your agency’s compliance with nonsupplanting and financial requirements of the grant and progress toward achieving your community policing plan. Program and Monitoring Specialists as well as auditors are particularly interested in confirming that the purchase of approved items is consistent with the applicant’s proposal.

Though a formal assessment is not a requirement, departments are strongly encouraged to conduct an independent assessment of their respective projects. Project evaluations have proven to be valuable tools in helping departments identify areas in need of improvement, as well as providing data of successful processes.

Please feel free to contact your Grant Program Specialist at 800.421.6770 to discuss any issues or concerns you may have.

PERFORMANCE MEASURES

To assist in fulfilling the Department of Justice’s responsibilities under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), P.L. 103-62, applicants who receive funding must provide data that measures the results of their work. P

Objective	Performance Measures	Data Grantee Provides
Increase the capacity of law enforcement agencies to implement community policing strategies that strengthen partnerships for safer communities and enhance law enforcement’s capacity to prevent, solve, and control crime through funding for personnel, technology, equipment, and training.	Effectiveness rating of COPS knowledge resources (e.g., training, publications) in increasing community policing capacity. Average technological capacity implementation rating (0 to 100) of <program name> grantees. Successful purchase and implementation of all items and/or services listed in the application Project and Budget Narratives.	Periodic progress reports providing an overview of <program name> grant purchases/implementation and implementation of community policing strategies.

erformance measures for the <program name> Initiative are as follows:

All COPS Office grants target increasing grantee capacity to implement community policing strategies within the three primary elements of community policing: 1) problem-solving; 2) partnerships; and 3) organizational transformation. The COPS Office requires all <program name> applicants to describe how the personnel, technology, equipment, and/or training requested will assist the applicant in implementing community policing strategies. For more information on community policing, please go to the COPS website at: www.cops.usdoj.gov/Default.asp?Item=36.

As part of the programmatic progress report, <program name> grantees will be required to report on their progress toward implementing community policing strategies. The COPS Office will not require that grantees track statistics to respond to the performance measure questions, and the grantee’s community policing capacity implementation rating and/or technological capacity implementation rating will not be used in determining grant compliance.

Based on the data collected from grantees, the COPS Office may make improvements to the
<program name> Initiative to better meet the program’s objective and law enforcement agency needs.

HOW TO APPLY

Primary Steps Required to Complete Application	Complete?
If necessary, request an ORI through the COPS Office Response Center at [email protected] or 800.421.6770.	❑
If you have not renewed your COPS Office Account Access information since <insert date> contact the COPS Office Response Center at [email protected] or 800.421.6770.	❑
Register with Grants.gov/Confirm registration	❑
Obtain a DUNS number/Confirm DUNS number	❑
Register with SAM database/Confirm SAM number	❑
Complete SF-424 on Grants.gov (Funding number:,<insert funding number>)	❑
Upon receipt of an e-mail from the COPS Office confirming successful submission of the SF-424 on Grants.gov, complete the second part of the application on the COPS Office Online Application System.	❑

Electronic Submission of the SF-424 and the <insert program name> Application via Grants.gov and the COPS Office Website—Sample Text – will change with each program.

Please read the following important information before attempting to submit your application via the COPS website:

• Completing a CHP application is a two-step process. Applicants are first required to register via www.grants.gov and complete an SF-424. The Grants.gov funding code for this solicitation is <insert funding number>. Once the SF-424 has been submitted, applicants will receive an e-mail from the COPS Office with instructions on completing the second part of the CHP application through the COPS Office Online Application System. If you have not renewed your COPS Office Account Access information, contact the COPS Office Response Center at [email protected] or 800.421.6770.

• It is strongly recommended that applicants register immediately on Grants.gov. In addition, applicants are strongly encouraged to complete the SF-424 as quickly as possible. Any delays in registering with Grants.gov or submitting the SF-424 may result in insufficient time for processing your application through www.grants.gov or the COPS Office Online Application System. An application is not considered submitted until you have submitted your SF-424 on Grants.gov and the second part of the application on the COPS Office Website.

• For technical assistance with submitting the SF-424, call the Grants.gov Contact Center at 800.518.4726 or e-mail [email protected]. For assistance with submitting the application through the COPS Office Online Application System, please call the COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770 or send questions via e-mail to [email protected].

To apply for funding, applicants must have a DUNS number (DUNS numbers are required of all agencies requesting federal funding) and have an active registration with the System for Award Management (SAM) database.

• Applicants must comply with any word and/or field limit requirements described in the COPS Application Guide.

• Applicants will have the opportunity to print a copy of the application prior to submission, and a copy of the application after it has been submitted. Please note that the application package cannot be submitted until all required fields have been completed.

• Applicants will be able to print a copy of the application package only for reference while completing the application online via the COPS website. The COPS Office will not accept applications submitted via mail or e-mail.

• Do not wait until the application deadline date to begin the application process through the COPS website. The registration steps may take several days to complete, and if you wait until the application deadline date you may be unable to submit your application online.

Additionally, all applicants are required to maintain current registrations in the System for Award Management (SAM) database. SAM replaces the Central Contractor Registrations (CCR) database as the repository for standard information about federal financial assistance applicants, recipients, and subrecipients. DOJ requires that all applicants (other than individuals) for federal financial assistance maintain current registrations in the SAM database. Applicants must update and renew their SAM registration at least once a year to maintain an active status.

Applicants that were previously registered in the CCR database must at a minimum:

• Create a SAM account

• Log in to SAM and migrate permissions to the SAM account (all the entity registrations and records from CCR should already have been migrated)

Applicants that were not previously registered in the CCR database must register in SAM prior to registering in Grants.gov. Information about SAM registration procedures can be accessed at www.sam.gov.

Obtaining a DUNS Number

The federal government requires that all applicants for federal grants and cooperative agreements with the exception of individuals other than sole proprietors have a DUNS number prior to application submission. The DUNS number is used to identify related organizations that are receiving funding under grants and cooperative agreements, and to provide consistent name and address data for electronic grant application systems. A DUNS number may be obtained by telephone at 888.705.7511 or via the internet at http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform.

Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) Number

• The Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number is a unique nine- or thirteen-digit identification number provided by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B).

• The DUNS number is site-specific. Therefore, each distinct physical location of an entity (such as branches, divisions, and headquarters) may be assigned a DUNS number. Organizations should try to keep DUNS numbers to a minimum. In many instances, a central DUNS number with a DUNS number for each major division/department/agency that applies for a grant may be sufficient.

• You should verify that you have a DUNS number or take the steps needed to obtain one as soon as possible, if there is a possibility you will be applying for future federal grants or cooperative agreements. There is no need to wait until you are submitting a particular application.

• If you already have a DUNS number. If you, as the entity applying for a federal grant or cooperative agreement, previously obtained a DUNS number in connection with the federal acquisition process or requested or had one assigned to you for another purpose, you should use that number on all of your applications. It is not necessary to request another DUNS number from D&B. You may request D&B to supply a family-tree report of the DUNS numbers associated with your organization. Organizations should work with D&B to ensure the right information is on the report. Organizations should not establish new numbers, but use existing numbers and update/ validate the information associated with the number.

• If you are not sure whether you have a DUNS number, call D&B using the toll-free number 866.705.5711, and indicate that you are a federal grant applicant or prospective applicant. D&B will tell you if you already have a number. If you do not have a DUNS number, D&B will ask you to provide the information listed below and will immediately assign you a number, free of charge.

To Obtain Your DUNS Number

• The requestor may obtain a DUNS number via the Internet at http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform.

• The requestor may also obtain a DUNS number via telephone at 866.705.5711. The phone is staffed from 8 AM to 6 PM (local time of the caller when calling from within the continental United States). Calls placed to the above number outside of those hours will receive a recorded message requesting the caller to call back during the operating hours. The process to request a number takes about 5-10 minutes. A DUNS number will be assigned at the conclusion of the call. You will need to provide the following information:

{Legal name

{Headquarters name and address for your organization

{Doing business as (DBA) or other name by which your organization is commonly known or recognized

{Physical address, city, state, and zip code

{Mailing address (if separate from headquarters and/or physical address)

{Telephone number

{Contact name and title

• {Number of employees at your physical location

Managing Your DUNS Number

• D&B periodically contacts organizations with DUNS numbers to verify that their information is current. Organizations with multiple DUNS numbers may request a free family tree listing from D&B to help determine what branches/divisions have numbers and whether the information is current. Please call the dedicated toll-free DUNS number request line at 866.705.5711 to request your family tree.

• D&B recommends that organizations with multiple DUNS numbers have a single point of contact for controlling DUNS number requests to ensure that the appropriate branches/divisions have DUNS numbers for federal purposes.

• As a result of obtaining a DUNS number you have the option to be included on D&B’s marketing list that is sold to other companies. If you do not want your name/organization included on this marketing list, request to be de-listed from D&B’s m

  Obtaining a DUNS number is absolutely free for all entities doing business with the federal government. This includes grant and cooperative agreement applicants or prospective applicants and federal contractors. Be certain that you identify yourself as a federal grant applicant or prospective applicant.

  arketing file when you are speaking with a D&B representative during your DUNS number telephone application.

Registering with the System for Award Management (SAM)

Applicants for all federal grants are required to register with the System for Award Management (SAM).    If your organization already has an Employer Identification Number (EIN), your SAM registration will take up to two weeks to process.    If your organization does not have an EIN, then you should allow two to five weeks for obtaining the information from the IRS when requesting the EIN via phone, fax, mail, or Internet.    Follow the steps listed below to register in the SAM:

Step 1:    Obtain a DUNS number at www.dnb.com/us/ or call 866.705.5711

Step 2:    Access the SAM online registration through the SAM home page at https://www.sam/gov/and follow the online instructions for new SAM users.

Step 3:    Complete and submit the online registration, If you already have the necessary information on hand, the online registration takes approximately 30 minutes to complete, depending upon the size and complexity of your business or organization.    Please note that organizations must update or renew their SAM registration at least one a year to maintain an active status.

To migrate your legacy system user account from CCR, FedReg, ORCA, or EPLS, you must first create a personal account in SAM by clicking on “Create an Account” on the homepage.    An individual Account is required to manage Entity Registrations in SAM.    You won’t be able to manage your registration until you create a System Account in SAM.    Once you validate that you have access to the email address you provided during the registration process and login, you will see a message on the user Dashboard (My SAM) that will ask you “Would you like to migrate a legacy system account?”    Click “Yes” to begin the migration process.    Alternatively, you may click on “Manage My User Roles,” then on “Migrate Legacy Account” link to begin the migration process      The roles you had with the Legacy system will be mapped to your SAM account.

To update your entity’s SAM registration, follow the below steps:

Step 1:    Go to the SAM homepage (www.sam.gov), enter your username and password, and then click the “Log In” button.

Step 2:    Select “Complete Registrations” under Registration/Update Entity in the left navigation pane.

Step 3:    Select the entity record that you want to update and click the “Update” button.

For more details on updating your registration, please refer to the SAM user Guide, available at www.sam.gov.

If awarded, your agency must maintain the currency of your information in the CCR until you submit the final financial report required under this award or receive the final payment, whichever is later. This requires that you review and update the information at least annually after the initial registration, and more frequently if required by changes in your information or another award term.

To review the System Award Management and Universal Identifiers Requirements award terms, please see Appendix D.

Geographic Names Information System ID Number

The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) database is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior. The database assigns a unique, permanent feature identifier, the Feature ID that is the only standard federal key for integrating or reconciling feature data from multiple datasets.

To determine your jurisdiction’s Feature ID number:

• Go to: http://geonames.usgs.gov/. Click on “Search Domestic Names”

• From this screen, you can enter the name of your jurisdiction (for example, “Cleveland”)

• Select your state (“Ohio”)

• Click “Send Query.” The results will show that Cleveland, Ohio is a populated place with a Feature ID of 1066654.

• Enter this 7-digit number into your application form. Some jurisdictions may have Feature IDs of less than 7 digits; for example, American University is a school in the District of Columbia with a Feature ID of 531560. In this case, you should place a “0” in front of the number to ensure that 7 digits are entered into the <<program name>> application form.

Helpful Online Resources

DUNS Number information:

http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform/displayHomePage.do

System for Award Management (SAM):    www.sam.gov Audit Requirement

OMB Circular A-133 establishes the requirements for organizational audits that apply to COPS grantees. Grantees must arrange for the required organization-wide (not grant-by-grant) audit in accordance with the requirements of this circular.

Civil Rights

All recipients of federal grant funds are required to comply with nondiscrimination requirements contained in various federal laws. A memorandum addressing federal civil rights statutes and regulations from the Office for Civil Rights, Office of Justice Programs will be included in the award package for grant recipients. All applicants should consult the Assurances form to understand the applicable legal and administrative requirements.

Please be advised that a hold may be placed on this application if it is deemed that the applicant agency is not in compliance with federal civil rights laws and/or is not cooperating with an ongoing federal civil rights investigation.

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act

If you are an applicant using assistive technology and you encounter difficulty when applying using the COPS online system (www.cops.usdoj.gov), please contact:

Donte Turner

U.S. Department of Justice, COPS Office

202.616.9427 or [email protected]

The Department is committed to ensuring equal access to all applicants and will assist any applicant who may experience difficulties with assistive technology when applying for grants using the COPS online system.

Grant Terms and Conditions— Sample Text – will change with program-specific requirements

The following section describes all of the compliance terms and conditions that applicants should be aware of before applying to COPS programs. The table below further defines which of the legal requirements are applicable to the program for which you are applying. Please review each section carefully. The signatures of the applicant’s Authorized Organizational Representative, Law Enforcement Executive/Program Official, and Government Executive/Financial Official on Section 14: Certification of Review and Representation of Compliance with Requirements of the COPS Application Attachment to the SF-424 assures the COPS Office that your agency will comply with all legal and administrative requirements that govern the applicant for acceptance and use of federal grant funds.

Key: Y – Yes            N – No          P – Possibly (dependent upon particular agency regulations or items requested)
FY 20xx Program	I. Assurances	ll. Certifications	III.. Disclosure of Lobbying Activities	IV. Non-supplanting	V. Procurement & Sole Source Justification	VI.. Criminal Intelligence Systems/28 C.F.R. Part 23	VII. Mitigate Possible Adverse Health, Safety, and Environmental Impacts	VIII. Community Policing Self Assessment Tool (CP SAT)	IX.    System of Award Management and Universal Identifier Requirements	X. Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA)- Reporting Subaward and Executive Compensation Information

Key: Y – Yes            N – No          P – Possibly (dependent upon particular agency regulations or items requested)
FY 20xx Program	I. Assurances	ll. Certifications	III. Disclosure of Lobbying Activities	IV. Non-supplanting	V. Procurement & Sole Source Justification	VI. Criminal Intelligence Systems/28 C.F.R. Part 23	VII. Mitigate Possible Adverse Health, Safety, and Environmental Impacts
<program name>	Y	Y	P	Y	P	P	P

I. & II. Assurances & Certifications (included in Section 15 of this Application Guide and Standard Application forms.)

Applicants to COPS programs are required to sign and submit the standard Assurances and Certifications forms. Signing these documents assures the COPS Office that you have read, understand, and accept the grant terms and conditions as outlined in the Assurances and Certifications. Please read these documents carefully as signatures on these documents are treated as material representation of fact upon which reliance will be placed when the Department of Justice determines to award the covered grant.

III. Disclosure of Lobbying Activities (Also included in Section 16 of this Application Guide and Standard Application forms.)

This disclosure form shall be completed by the reporting entity, whether subawardee or prime federal recipient, at the initiation or receipt of a covered federal action, or a material change to a previous filing, pursuant to title 31 U.S.C. section 1352. The filing of a form is required for each payment or agreement to make payment to any lobbying entity for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with a covered federal action.    Refer to the implementing guidance published by the Office of Management and Budget for additional information.

If this applies to your agency, you are required to submit the Disclosure of Lobbying Activities (SF-LLL) as an attachment to your application online. Complete all items that apply for both the initial filing and material change report.   

IV. Nonsupplanting Requirement

Grant funds may not be used to replace state or local funds (or, for tribal grantees, Bureau of Indian Affairs funds) that would, in the absence of federal aid, be made available for the purpose of the grant. Instead, grant funds must be used to increase the total amount of funds that would otherwise be made available for the grant purposes.

A grant recipient may not use federal grant funds to pay for any item or costs associated with this request that the recipient is already obligated to pay. Funds allocated to pay for law enforcement costs irrespective of the grant may not be reallocated to other purposes or refunded should a COPS grant or cooperative agreement be awarded. Non-federal funds must remain available for and devoted to that purpose, with COPS funds supplementing those non-federal funds. Funding awarded cannot be obligated until after the grant award start date (unless an exception is authorized in writing by the COPS Office). This means that COPS funds cannot be applied to any agency cost incurred prior to the award start date.

The possibility of supplanting will be the subject of careful application review, possible pre-award review, and post-award monitoring and audit. Any supplanting of non-federal funds by COPS grant funds may be grounds for potential suspension or termination of grant funding, recovery of misused funds, and/or other applicable legal sanctions.

If you have questions concerning the nonsupplanting requirement while completing this application, please contact the COPS Office at 800.421.6770 for further information.

V. Procurement & Sole Source Justification

Sole source, or procurement by noncompetitive proposals, is procurement through solicitation of a proposal from only one source, or after solicitation of a number of sources, competition is determined inadequate.    It must adhere to the standards set forth in the Uniform Administrative Requirements, 28 C.F.R. § 66.36 or 28 C.F.R. § 70.40 et seq. (as applicable).

For the purchase of equipment, technology or services under a COPS grant award, grant recipients must follow their own policies and procedures on procurement as long as those requirements conform to the federal procurement requirements set forth in 28 C.F.R. § 66.36 and 28 C.F.R. § 70.40 et seq. (as applicable).    If a grant recipient determines that the award of a contract through a competitive process is infeasible, and if one of the following circumstances applies:    (1) the item/service is available only from one source; (2) the public exigency or emergency for the requirement will not permit a delay resulting from competitive solicitation; or (3) competition is determined inadequate after solicitation of a number of sources, the grant recipient must seek written authorization from the COPS Office for sole source procurements in excess of $100,000.    Written approval for sole source procurements from the COPS Office must be received prior to purchasing equipment, technology or services, obligating funding for a contract, or entering into a contract with grant funds.

Requests for sole source procurements of equipment, technology or services in excess of $100,000 must be submitted to the COPS Office in writing certifying that the award of the contract through full and open competition is infeasible. The sole source request must be prepared on department letterhead.    The request should also include the following information:

Section I – A brief description of the project, the amount to be designated for the sole source procurement, and the purpose of the contract.

Section II – A statement identifying which one (or more) of the three circumstances identified below apply to the procurement transaction and an explanation as to why it is necessary to contract in a noncompetitive manner.    Include supporting information as identified below under the applicable section(s).

The item/service is available only from one source.

• Uniqueness of items/services to be procured from the proposed contractor or vendor (compatibility, patent issues, etc.)

• How the agency determined that the item/service is only available from one source
  (e.g., market survey results, independent agency research, patented or proprietary system, etc.)

• Explanation of need for contractor’s expertise linked to the current project
  (e.g., knowledge of project management, responsiveness, experience of contractor personnel, prior work on earlier phases of project, etc.)

• Any additional information that would support the case

The public exigency or emergency for the requirement will not permit a delay resulting from competitive solicitation.

• When the contractual coverage is required by your department and why

• Impact on project if deadline/dates are not met

• How long it would take an alternate contractor to reach the same required level of    competence (equate to dollar amounts, if desired)

• Any additional information that would support the case

Competition is determined inadequate after solicitation of a number of sources.

• Results of a market survey to determine competition availability; if no survey is conducted, please explain why not

• Any additional information that would support the case

Section III – A declaration that this action/choice is in the best interest of the agency.

Upon receipt of the request for sole source authorization, the COPS Office will review to determine if competition is infeasible, and your agency will be contacted if any of the identified information is missing or if additional supporting information is required.    If the COPS Office determines that the request does not meet the standards set forth above, the request will be denied.   

Please be advised that conflicts of interest are prohibited under the procurement standards set forth in 28 C.F.R. § 66 and 28 C.F.R. § 70.40 et seq. (as applicable).

If you have any questions regarding the federal requirements that guide procurement procedures, please contact your Grant Program Specialist at 800.421.6770.

VI. Criminal Intelligence Systems/28 C.F.R. Part 23 Compliance (if applicable)

If your agency is receiving COPS funding for equipment/technology that will be used to operate an interjurisdictional criminal intelligence system, you must agree to comply with the operating principles found at 28 C.F.R. Part 23.    An “interjurisdictional criminal intelligence system” is generally defined as a system which receives, stores, analyzes, and exchanges or disseminates data regarding ongoing criminal activities (such activities may include, but are not limited to, loan sharking, drug or stolen property trafficking, gambling, extortion, smuggling, bribery, and public corruption) and shares this data with other law enforcement jurisdictions.    28 C.F.R. Part 23 contains operating principles for these interjurisdictional criminal information systems which protect individual privacy and constitutional rights.

If you are simply using the COPS funds to operate a single agency database (or other unrelated forms of technology) and will not share criminal intelligence data with other jurisdictions, 28 C.F.R. Part 23 does not apply to this grant.

VII. Certification to Mitigate Possible Adverse Health, Safety,
& Environmental Impacts (if applicable)

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as amended (Pub. Law 91-190; 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq) establishes a national goal of protecting the environment. NEPA’s requirements apply to federal projects, decisions, or actions, including grants in aid, that might have a significant impact on the quality of the human environment.    For example, renovation and construction projects initiated by state or local law enforcement agencies with grant funding from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), U.S. Department of Justice are subject to NEPA.    These projects are usually also subject to related environmental impact review and consultation provisions within the following environmental statutes and executive orders: Coastal Zone Management Act; Coastal Barrier Resources Act; Clean Air Act; Safe Drinking Water Act; Federal Water Pollution Control Act; Endangered Species Act; Wild and Scenic Rivers Act; National Historic Preservation Act; Farmland Protection Policy Act; and executive orders related to protection of wetlands, floodplain management, and environmental justice.

It is COPS’ policy to minimize harm to the environment and we may reject proposals or encourage the modification of projects which have adverse environmental impacts.    No grant funds may be awarded and/or expended for a specific construction proposal until an Environmental Assessment (EA) and/or an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has been completed and COPS has issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) or has approved the EIS.

VIII. Community Policing Self Assessment Tool (CP SAT) (if applicable)

Applicants to COPS programs are required to administer the Community Policing Self Assessment Tool (CP SAT) within three months after returning the signed grant award document to the COPS Office. The CP SAT essentially consists of a short community policing survey which will be administered to your agency staff. The COPS Office, through a third-party provider, will conduct this survey and support the entire process, minimizing any burden on your agency personnel. Agencies awarded CHP funding will be provided with additional information on the CP SAT at the beginning of the grant period.

IX. System of Award Management (SAM) and Universal Identifier Requirements

Unless you are exempted from this requirement under 2 C.F.R. 25.110, you as the recipient must maintain the currency of your information in the SAM until you submit the final financial report required under this award or receive the final payment, whichever is later. This requires that you review and update the information at least annually after the initial registration, and more frequently if required by changes in your information or other award term.

To review the System for Award Management (SAM) and Universal Identifier Award Term, please see Appendix D.

X.    Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA)- Reporting Subaward and Executive Compensation Information

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA) requires, among other things, that information on federal awards (federal financial assistance and expenditures) be made available to the public via a single, searchable website, which is www.USASpending.gov.

Applicants should note that all recipients of awards of $25,000 or more under this solicitation, consistent with FFATA, will be required to report award information on any first-tier subawards totaling $25,000 or more, and, in certain cases, to report information on the names and total compensation of the five most highly compensated executives of the recipient and first-tier subrecipients. If applicable, the FFATA Subaward Reporting System (FSRS), accessible via the Internet at www.fsrs.gov, is the reporting tool recipients under this solicitation will use to capture and report subaward information and any executive compensation data required by FFATA.

The subaward information entered in FSRS will then be displayed on www.USASpending.gov, associated with the prime award, furthering federal spending transparency.

Each applicant entity must ensure that it has the necessary processes and systems in place to comply with the applicable reporting requirements should it receive funding.

To review the FFATA Reporting Subaward and Executive Compensation Award Term, please see Appendix C.

Suspension Or Termination Of Funding

The COPS Office may suspend, in whole or in part, or terminate funding, or impose other sanctions on a grantee for the following reasons:

• Failure to substantially comply with the requirements or objectives of the Public Safety Partnership and Community Policing Act of 1994, program guidelines, or other provisions of federal law

• Failure to make satisfactory progress toward the goals or strategies set forth in this application

• Failure to adhere to grant agreement requirements or special conditions

• Proposing substantial plan changes to the extent that, if originally submitted, would have resulted in the application not being selected for funding

• Failure to submit required or requested reports

• Filing a false statement or certification in this application or other report or document

• Other good cause shown.

Prior to imposing sanctions, the COPS Office will provide reasonable notice to the grantee of its intent to impose sanctions and will attempt to resolve the problem informally. Appeal procedures will follow those in the U.S. Department of Justice regulations in 28 C.F.R. Part 18.

False statements or claims made in connection with COPS grants may result in fines, imprisonment, debarment from participating in federal grants or contracts, and/or any other remedy available by law.

Please be advised that grantees may not use COPS funding for the same item or service also funded by another U.S. Department of Justice award.

Required Application Documents and Sections for <program name> Applications Sample Text – will change with program-specific requirements

Listed below is a chart that shows the required documentation that must be completed and submitted for your application to be considered complete. Failure to submit all required documentation at the time of application may delay processing and/or result in the denial of your application. Unless otherwise noted, each section listed must be completed in its entirety. You can use this chart as an application checklist to ensure you have met all of the necessary requirements.
Application Documents & Sections	Required? Yes, No or Possible (dependent upon program)	Completed?
Standard Form 424	Yes	
COPS Application Attachment to SF-424	Yes	
Section 1: COPS Program Request	Yes	
Section 2: Agency Eligibility Information	Yes	
Section 3: General Agency Information	Yes	
Section 4: Executive Information	Yes	
Section 5: COPS Officer Request Form A. COPS Hiring Program Officer Request B. Child Sexual Predator Program (CSPP) Officer Request	Yes Yes	 
Section 6:    Law Enforcement & Community Policing Strategy A. Non Hiring Applicants B. Hiring Applicants Only	Yes Yes	 
Section 7:    Need for Federal Assistance	Yes	
Section 8: Continuation of Project After Federal Funding Ends	Yes	
Section 9: Program Specific Requirements	Possible	
Section 10 : Executive Summary	Yes	
Section 11: Project Description (Narrative)	Yes	
Section 12: Official Partner(s) Contact Information	Possible	
Section 13: Application Attachments (Budget Narrative)	Yes	
Section 14: Budget Detail Worksheets	Yes	
Section 15: Assurances and Certifications A. Assurances B. Certifications	Yes Yes	 
Section 16:    Disclosure of Lobbying Activities	Possible	
Section 17: Certification of Review and Representation of Compliance with Requirements	Yes	
Section 18: Application Data Verification	Possible	

COPS APPLICATION ATTACHMENT TO SF424

What An Application Must Include

REQUIRED FORMAT AND OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR SUBMISSION

Section 1: COPS Program Request

Select the program for which you are requesting federal assistance.

Section 2: Agency Eligibility Information—Sample Text – will change with each program.

For this Section, check the appropriate box, and choose the appropriate entity from the drop-down menu.

1. In Section 2A, you will be asked several questions about your law enforcement agency operations and authority to determine your eligibility to apply for a COPS Hiring Program (CHP) grant. Please note that CHP applicants must have a police department which is operational asof May 15, 2013, which is the date this application closes, or receive services through a new or existing contract for law enforcement services. Applicants must also maintain primary law enforcement authority for the population to be served.

2. Additionally, if funds under this program are to be used as part of a written contracting agreement for law enforcement services (e.g., a town which contracts with a neighboring sheriff’s department to receive services), the agency wishing to receive law enforcement services must be the legal applicant in this application (although we will ask you to supply some information about the contract service provider in Section 7 of this application).

Section 3:    General Agency Information

Please provide accurate agency information as this information may be used, along with other data collected, to determine funding eligibility.

<The following are the types of agency specific information applicants are requested to provide.>

A. Applicant ORI Number

B. Applicant Data Universal Numeric System (DUNS) Number

C. System for Award Management (SAM)

D. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) ID

E. Cognizant Federal Agency

F. Fiscal Year

G. Law Enforcement Agency Sworn Force Information

H. Civilian Staffing

I. U.S. Department of Justice Funding

Section 4:    Executive Information <When possible, this information will be pre-populated from registrations or existing grantee information>

Please ensure that information listed is current.    If these officials are “Interim” or “Acting” at the time of application, check the appropriate box.    Please note that this information will be used for any future correspondence regarding this grant application, and ultimately, if a grant is awarded, this information will be used for any grant award notifications.

A. Law Enforcement Executive/Agency Executive Information

For Law Enforcement Agencies: Enter the law enforcement executive’s name and contact information. This is the highest ranking law enforcement official within your jurisdiction (e.g., Chief of Police, Sheriff, or equivalent).

For Non-Law Enforcement Agencies: Enter the highest ranking individual in the applicant agency (e.g., CEO, President, Chairperson, Director) who has the authority to apply for this grant on behalf of the applicant agency.      If the grant is awarded, this position would ultimately be responsible for the programmatic implementation of the award.

B. Government Executive/Financial Official Information

For Government Agencies: Enter the government executive’s name and contact information. This is the highest ranking official within your jurisdiction (e.g., Mayor, City Administrator, Tribal Chairman, or equivalent).

For Non-Government Agencies: Enter the name and contact information of the financial official who has the authority to apply for this grant on behalf of the applicant agency (e.g., Treasurer). If the grant is awarded, this position would ultimately be responsible for the financial management of the award. Please note that information for non-executive positions (e.g., clerks, trustees, etc.) is not acceptable.

Note: Listing individuals without ultimate programmatic and financial authority for the grant could delay the review of your application, or remove your application from consideration.

C. CAPS Contact Information

Enter the CAPS Contact name and contact information.

Section 5:    COPS Officer Request Form—Sample Text – will change with each program.

<Instructions will vary according to program requirements.>

2013 CHP grant funds cover up to 75 percent of the approved entry-level salary and fringe benefits of each newly-hired and/or rehired, full-time sworn career law enforcement officer for the 3-years (36 months) grant period, with a minimum 25 percent local cash match requirement, and maximum of federal share of $125,000 per officer position. CHP grant funding will be based on your agency’s current entry-level salaries and fringe benefits for full-time sworn officers.

All agencies’ requests will be capped at no more than 5 percent of their actual sworn force strength as reported on the date of application, up to a maximum of 25 officer positions. Agencies with a service population of 1 million or above may apply for up to 25 officer positions; however, agencies with a service population less than 1 million may apply for up to 15 officer positions. The request of any agency with a sworn force strength less than or equal to 20 will be capped at one officer position.    Based on the maximum number of positions that would be available if your agency were awarded funding, please identify how the requested positions would be allocated across the three specific categories:

• Hire new officers, which includes filling existing officer vacancies that are no longer funded in your agency’s budget.    These positions must be in addition to your current budgeted (funded) level of sworn officer positions, and the officers must be hired on or after the official grant award start date as it appears on your agency’s award document.   

• Rehire officers laid off by any jurisdiction as a result of state, local, or tribal budget cuts.    The rehired officers must be rehired on or after the official grant award start date as it appears on your agency’s award document.    Documentation must be maintained showing the dates that the positions were laid off and rehired.    Applicants will be asked an optional question as to how many rehire officers will be military veterans.

• Rehire officers who are (at the time of the application) currently scheduled to be laid off on a future date as a result of state, local, or tribal budget cuts.    Grantees will be required to continue funding the position(s) with local funding until the dates of the scheduled lay-offs.    The dates of the scheduled lay-offs and the number of positions affected must be identified in the CHP application.    In addition, documentation must be maintained detailing the dates and reasons for the lay-offs.    Furthermore, agencies awarded will be required to maintain documentation that demonstrates that the scheduled lay-offs are occurring for local economic reasons unrelated to the availability of CHP grant funds; such documentation may include local council meeting minutes; memoranda, notices, or orders discussing the lay-offs, budget documents ordering jurisdiction-wide budget cuts, and/or notices provided to the individual officers regarding the lay-offs.

CHP funds are awarded on your agency’s current entry-level full-time sworn officer salaries and fringe benefits package over a three-year period.    Any additional costs higher than entry level will be the responsibility of the grantee agency.

A grantee receiving CHP funding to rehire officers that are scheduled for layoff must continue to fund the officers with local funds until the date of the scheduled lay-off. The grantee may rehire the officers with CHP funding on or immediately after the date of the scheduled lay-off.    Unless required by a grantee’s jurisdiction, the agency is not required to formally compete the administrative steps associated with the lay-off of the individual officers it is seeking to rehire so long as the agency can document that a final, approved budget decision was made to lay-off those individual officers on the identified lay-off date.

An applicant may not reduce its budget for sworn officers just to take advantage of the CHP grant.    Any budget cut must be unrelated to the receipt of CHP grant funds (to avoid a violation of the nonsupplanting requirement).

When completing the questions about the number of CHP sworn officer positions your agency is requesting, please base your responses on your agency’s current (at the time of application) needs for funding in the three hiring categories (new hires, rehires of previously laid-off officers, and rehiring officers who are scheduled to be laid off on a specific future date).    CHP grant awards will be made for officer positions requested in each of these three categories and recipients of CHP awards are required to use awarded funds for the specific categories awarded.    If an applicant receives an award, and after receiving the award, needs to change the hiring categories, it must request a post-award grant modification and must receive prior approval before spending CHP funding. For additional information on modifying a CHP grant award, please contact the COPS Response Center at 800.421.6770.

1. COPS Hiring Program Officer Request

2. Child Sexual Predator Program (CSPP) Officer Request

Section 6:    Law Enforcement & Community Policing Strategy

A. Non-Hiring Applicants

COPS Office grants must be used to reorient the mission and activities of law enforcement agencies through initiating community policing or enhancing their involvement in community policing. If awarded funds, your responses to this section will constitute your agency’s community policing plan under this grant. Your organization may be audited or monitored to ensure that it is initiating or enhancing community policing in accordance with this plan. The COPS Office may also use this information to understand the needs of the field, and potentially provide for training, technical assistance, problem solving and community policing implementation tools.

We understand that your community policing needs may change during the life of your grant (if awarded), and minor changes to this plan may be made without prior approval from the COPS Office. We also recognize that this plan may incorporate a broad range of possible community policing strategies and activities, and that your agency may implement particular community policing strategies from the plan on an as-needed basis throughout the life of the grant. If your agency’s community policing plan changes significantly, however, you must submit those changes in writing to the COPS Office for approval. Changes are “significant” if they deviate from the range of possible community policing activities identified and approved in this original community policing plan submitted with your application.

B. CHP Applicants Only

COPS Office grants must be used to reorient the mission and activities of law enforcement agencies toward the community or enhance their involvement in community policing. Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies that support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues, such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime.

In Section 6B the COPS Office requires all CHP applicants to describe how hiring additional officers will assist the applicant in implementing and/or enhancing community policing strategies. Please complete the questions in this section to describe the types of community policing activities that will continue or result from COPS funding.

We understand that your community policing needs may change during the life of your grant. Minor changes to this plan may be made without prior approval of the COPS Office; however, grantees will be required to report on progress and/or changes to the community policing plan (if any) through required progress reports. If your agency’s community policing plan changes significantly, you must submit those changes to the COPS Office for approval. Changes are “significant” if they deviate from the specific crime problems(s) originally identified and approved in the community policing plan submitted with the application. In some cases, changes to the approved community policing strategies may also be deemed significant and may require approval of a modified community policing plan by the COPS Office, depending on the scope and nature of those changes as identified in the quarterly progress reports.

6B SECTION I: CURRENT COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITY POLICING

Section I aims to examine the current policies and practices within the agency as they relate to the three primary elements of community policing.

Question 1(a-f)

Please indicate which of the following activities your agency currently employs focusing on community partnerships and problem solving. The community partnerships category refers to the forging of relationships between the law enforcement agency and the individuals and organizations they serve to collaboratively develop solutions to problems and increase trust in police. The problem solving category refers to the process of engaging in the proactive and systematic examination of identified problems to develop effective responses that are rigorously evaluated.

Question 2

The community policing philosophy focuses on the way that the departments are organized and managed and how the infrastructure can be changed to support the philosophical shift behind community policing. Question 2 aims to identify how your agency currently infuses community policing ideals internally within the agency. Please check which, if any, internal management practices your agency currently employs.

Question 3

Community policing calls for a broadening of police outcome measures beyond that of the typical police performance. Question 3 examines the ways in which your agency currently assesses overall performance. Please indicate which of the following assessment measures your agency annually uses to assess performance.

Question 4

Community policing is a collaborative effort between the law enforcement agency and the community it serves. The pathway of communication between the community and the law enforcement agency is paramount to the success of any community oriented policing strategy. Question 4 seeks to gain an understanding of the ways in which your agency shares information with the community it serves. Please indicate which of the following ways your agency routinely shares information with community members.

Question 5

Community policing recognizes that police rarely can solve public safety problems alone, and encourages interactive partnerships with relevant stakeholders. Question 5 intends to explore the ways your agency routinely participates in collaborative efforts with federal, tribal, state, and/or local law enforcement agencies.

Question 6

Community policing advocates that the public should play a role in prioritizing public safety problems. Individuals who live, work, or otherwise have an interest in the community, are a valuable resource for identifying community concerns. Please identify which of the following ways your agency formally involves community members in influencing agency practices and operations.

6B SECTION II(A): PROPOSED COMMUNITY POLICING PLAN – PROBLEM SOLVING AND PARTNERSHIPS

Section II(A) aims to identify the specific problem you wish to address with COPS funding, the ways you identified and prioritized these public safety issues, and what organizations/agencies you intend to partner with in addressing the problem. This section also aims to determine the metrics used by your agency to evaluate whether the identified public safety problem is being adequately addressed, and what the goals of your agency are in responding to the identified public safety issue.

We strongly recommend agencies consult with their current and perspective partners in order to provide information about the most critical partnerships necessary to address the needs of the community. If awarded funds, your responses to sections II(A) and II(B) will constitute your agency’s community policing plan under this grant.

Question 7

The community policing philosophy engages in a proactive and systematic examination of identified problems that can be countered with effective responses. Question 7 aims to identify the community problem you wish to address with COPS funding.

You will be allowed to select one problem that your community is facing. You should select only the problem(s) that your agency believes it can best address with this funding. At any time during your grant you need to be prepared to demonstrate how the grant funds were specifically used to enhance or initiate community policing activities according to your community policing plan. After selecting your problem, you will answer questions 7a through 12.

In Question 7, please identify your problem by selecting a major problem heading (e.g., Violent Crime Problems). Once selected, a series of subheadings will be presented that narrow down the nature of the problem (e.g., Assault). Once you have selected the appropriate subheading, please describe the nature of your problem in the text box in precise, specific terms and in less than 50 characters. Examples have been provided to assist you with specifying the individual problems. Since community policing aims to develop solutions to the immediate underlying conditions contributing to your public safety problems, there may be a problem your agency wishes to address that is not reflected in the subheadings. If so, please identify the major heading that best fits your problem and under the “Other” subheading explain your problem.

In Question 7a, please describe the selected problem that you wish to address with COPS funding in 4,000 characters or less. This text will allow you to expand on the nature of your community’s problem and breadth of your proposed project. Community policing entails collaborative efforts between law enforcement agencies and the community, so you will have an opportunity to expand on your proposed partners in another section of the application. This information is required and will be used for auditing and monitoring purposes.

Question 8

Community policing encourages agencies to use problem solving techniques to identify and prioritize community problems. This process can consist of identifying a basic problem, determining the nature and seriousness of that problem, and establishing baseline measures to evaluate effective responses. Problem solving techniques aid in your community’s ability to recognize which issues need the most resources. Please select which sources contributed to the identification and prioritization of the problem(s) your agency intends to address through this grant program. At least one response must be selected but you may select as many sources as necessary.

Other local non law enforcement government agency data could include information from Code Enforcement, Public Works, Schools, Parks and Recreation, etc.

Question 9

Analysis is a key part of the problem-solving process put forth by the community policing model. The objectives of analysis are to develop an understanding of the dynamics of the problem and the limits of current responses, as well as to establish correlation and develop an understanding of cause and effect. By analyzing your community’s problem, you are better able to understand the needs of your community and thus determine the best ways to address these needs. Please identify which methods your agency will use to improve your understanding of the problemyou will address. At least one response must be selected but you may select as many responses as needed.

Question 10

Community Policing relies heavily on partnerships and relationships between law enforcement and the community it serves. Questions 10a–d are designed to understand these partnerships in greater detail. We strongly recommend agencies consult with their current and perspective partners to in order to provide information about the most critical partnerships necessary to address the needs of the community.

In Question 10a, please identify the number of partnerships your agency will initiate or enhance to address the identified problem.

For Question 10b, of the partners identified in 10a, name the most important external groups/ organizations your agency partner with to develop responses to this problem. You may only list three partners by name, but you may attach letters of support from any or all project partners.

In Question 10c, for each partner identified in 10b, please characterize the type of entity this partnership is. Choose the option that provides the closest description of the partner.

In Question 10d (if applicable), for any federal, state, tribal, or local law enforcement agencies you indicated as a partner, identify all the steps you have to take in order to formalize your enhanced or initiated partnership.

Question 11

This question is aimed at determining the metrics used by your agency to evaluate whether the identified problem is being adequately addressed. Please check all the criteria your agency plans to use to determine whether the implemented response achieved the targeted outcomes.

Question 12

This question is aimed at assessing what the goals of your agency are in responding to the identified problem. Although an agency may have multiple goals, we are requesting that you identify your agency’s primary goals, and limit it to the top three. We also encourage your agency to create a system that documents progress toward achieving these identified goals.

6B SECTION II(B): PROPOSED COMMUNITY POLICNG PLAN – ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION

As one of the three pillars of community policing, organizational change is integral to ensuring that your agency’s management, structure, personnel, and information systems support, and ultimately help sustain and institutionalize community partnerships and proactive problem-solving efforts. These changes focus on the way that departments are organized and managed, and how the infrastructure and operations can be changed to support the philosophical shift behind community policing.

In this section, you will be asked to identify the organizational change(s) that your agency plans to focus on through your requested COPS funding. Identifying the specific organizational change(s) that your agency plans to focus on is important to ensure that you satisfy the requirements for COPS funding under this program, and to ensure that ultimately the use of these funds will initiate or enhance your agency’s overall capacity to implement community policing strategies.

Questions 13–14

You may select no more than two organizational changes which will be initiated or enhanced under both internal changes to personnel management (Question 13) and changes to agency management (Question 14). After identifying the organizational change(s) that you will address through your COPS grant, you will be asked to provide a brief (2,000 characters) description expanding on the nature of your planned organizational change activities.

Please be aware that your responses to these questions will become part of your agency’s community policing plan under this grant, and your award will be monitored to ensure that the organizational change activities you identify are being initiated or enhanced as part of your community policing plan under this COPS grant. Because these organizational changes can involve substantial effort and investment, we are limiting the organizational change options to no more than two under each section.

6B SECTION III: GENERAL COMMUNITY SUPPORT AND ENGAGEMENT

Identifying the specific support and engagement(s) on which your agency plans to focus is important to ensure that you satisfy the requirements for COPS funding under this program. Section III aims to identify the partners your agency consulted with to develop your community policing plan, and to what extent your efforts will compliment other initiatives in your jurisdiction.

Section 7:    Need for Federal Assistance—Sample Text – will change with each program.

All applicants are required to provide a brief explanation of their agency’s inability to address your public safety needs and implement this project without federal assistance. <This information may be provided in a narrative or applicants may be required to provide data, depending on the specific program requirements.>

<There will be instructional language inserted here for applicants that are/will be in a contracting situation and need assistance completing this section of the application.>

A. Service Population << FY12 CHP Applicants will not answer>>

B. Explanation of Need for Federal Assistance

C. Fiscal Health (if applicable) << FY12 CHP Applicants will not answer>>

D. Property/Violent Crime << FY12 CHP Applicants will not answer>>

In Section 7A, please note that the actual population and service population may or may not be the same.    For example, a service population may be the census population minus incorporated towns and cities that have their own police department within your geographic boundaries or estimates of ridership (e.g., transit police) or visitors (e.g., park police).

In Section 7B all applicants are required to explain their inability to address the need for this award without federal assistance. Please note that the character limit for this response is 3,000 characters.

When answering the set of questions under Section 7C, we strongly recommend that you consult with your jurisdiction’s budgeting office or official, as some items relate to the overall jurisdiction’s revenue, layoffs, furloughs and hiring freezes.

To the extent possible, all data should come from a publicly verifiable source. Supporting source documentation may be requested by the COPS Office. This information will be used to evaluate your jurisdiction’s need for federal assistance to address its public safety needs. Jurisdictions applying to receive law enforcement services through a contract should answer these questions in terms of their jurisdiction and any existing contractual arrangements.

Please note: All figures must be rounded to the nearest whole dollar, or to the nearest whole percent.

Section 7C, Question 1

Please provide the total annual operating budget for your law enforcement agency for the current fiscal year, as well as the two previous fiscal years. For jurisdictions receiving services through a contract, the law enforcement operating budget should be the total amount your jurisdiction budgets for law enforcement services, not the operating budget of the agency providing services.

Note: If funds under this program are to be used as part of a written contracting arrangement for law enforcement services (e.g., a town which contracts with a neighboring sheriff’s department to receive services), the agency wishing to receive law enforcement services must be the legal applicant in this application.

Section 7C, Question 2

Please provide the total jurisdictional (city, county, state, tribal) locally-generated revenue for the current fiscal year, as well as the previous two fiscal years. These are revenues resulting directly—and only—from local sources, such as locally-generated property taxes, sales taxes, and other taxes and fees. For example, college/university departments would include tuition and fees, park police may include entrance and parking fees, etc. Do not include in this total any revenue that is not generated locally, such as state and federal grants.

Section 7C, Question 3

Please indicate the percentage of employees in your jurisdiction (city, county, state, tribal) that have been reduced through lay-offs from January 1, 2012, until the submission of this application.

For example, if your agency laid off 10 percent of its civilian law enforcement personnel on July 1, 2012, and further anticipates another 10 percent lay-off to its civilian law enforcement personnel by August 17, 2013, you would only include the 10 percent that were laid off at the time of the application.

If your jurisdiction contracts for law enforcement services, please answer this question in terms of your jurisdiction and existing contract arrangements. For example, if the agency providing services has laid-off officers, but this has not impacted your contract, you would report 0 percent for sworn lay-offs.

Section 7C, Question 4

Please indicate the percentage of employees in your jurisdiction (city, county, state, tribal) that have been reduced by furloughs since January 1, 2012. The COPS Office is only requesting information on furloughs that total at least 40 hours per person, per fiscal year.

For example, if your agency requires that every sworn employee take one hour per week off (furlough) for one year, each employee would be furloughed for 52 hours of time across the fiscal year. Therefore, since this is greater than the 40 hours per person per fiscal year threshold for reporting furloughs, you would indicate a 100 percent furlough rate for sworn law enforcement officer personnel.

If your jurisdiction contracts for law enforcement services, please answer this question in terms of your jurisdiction and existing contract arrangements. For example, if the agency providing services has reduced their employees through furlough, but this has not impacted your contract, you would report 0 percent furlough rate for sworn law enforcement officer personnel.

Section 7C, Question 5

Please indicate the percentage of employees in your jurisdiction that have been reduced due to official policies that limit your jurisdiction’s ability to fill vacancies. Please do not report your vacancy rate, which may include normal vacancies due to hiring and training delays. Only report those vacancies resulting from official policies that limit your jurisdiction’s ability to fill vacancies, such as hiring freezes.

For example, agency A has an authorized sworn strength of ten, but the actual current sworn strength is nine. The city mandated that the department is under a temporary hiring freeze and cannot backfill the one vacant position allowed under its authorized sworn strength. The percentage of sworn law enforcement personnel not hired due to official policies such as a hiring freeze would be reported as 10 percent.

Agency B has an authorized sworn strength of ten, but the actual current sworn strength is eight. The city mandated that the department could not fill one of the vacancies due to a hiring freeze, but is allowing the department to fill the other vacancy (though this position has not been hired due to recruitment challenges). The percentage of sworn law enforcement personnel not hired due to official policies would be reported as 10 percent, even though the total vacancy rate is 20 percent.

If your jurisdiction contracts for law enforcement services, and a hiring freeze in your jurisdiction has also frozen vacant positions on your contract, you would report that percentage only, not the total number of frozen positions within the agency providing services.

Section 7C, Question 6

To determine your jurisdiction’s percentage of families in poverty as established by the American Community Survey (ACS), you must visit the U.S. Census Bureau’s American FactFinder website at http://factfinder.census.gov/. At the top of the main page, enter your city/town/county, select your state and click “Go.” You should record the latest available census data. This may vary depending on the size and type of jurisdiction your agency serves.

When the Fact Sheet for your jurisdiction appears, ensure that it says American Community Survey at the top, then look under the heading “Economic Characteristics” for the line “Families below poverty level.” Look across to the second column for the percent of families in poverty figure and report this number in your application.

For jurisdictions not in the census, such as colleges/universities, parks, or transit, please check “Not Applicable.”

Section 7C, Question 7

To determine your jurisdiction’s unemployment rate as established by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, you must visit the Bureau’s Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program website at www.bls.gov/lau/data.htm. Please note, for the CHP application you must provide the February 2011 unemployment rate.

The LAUS data page includes comprehensive instructions on multiple methods of searching. One option is to click the button marked “One Screen Data Search.” When the search window appears, select your state (for example, “Oregon”), and then your area type (for example, “cities and towns above 25,000 population”), and then your specific city (for example, “Salem”). Then click on the button, “Get Data.” The results screen will show the monthly unemployment rate for every month going back to January of 1998. Please scroll to the bottom of the table to find the unemployment rate (in the last column) for February 2011 and enter this number.

IF YOUR JURISDICTION HAS LESS THAN 25,000 IN POPULATION, it may not be possible to calculate the monthly unemployment rate for your jurisdiction. [A notable exception would be that LAUS includes all cities and towns in the New England region regardless of size.] If your jurisdiction does not appear in the LAUS data, please provide the next best reportable level of data. This could be the surrounding county or multi-entity small labor market area, as appropriate.

For jurisdictions not in the census, such as colleges/universities, parks, or transit, please check “Not Applicable.”

Section 7C, Question 8

If applicable, please select the event(s) that your jurisdiction experienced on or after January 1, 2012.

Property/Violent Crime

Using Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) crime definitions enter the actual number of incidents reported by your agency in calendar years2010, 2011, and 2012. Only those incidents for which your agency had primary response authority should be provided. For example, state police and county sheriffs should only count crimes that are reported directly to them as the agency with primary response authority and not necessarily all crime reported in their state or county, even if they provide assistance or backup for these incidents.

If you contract for law enforcement services with another agency, report only those UCR crimes that occurred within your jurisdiction. Do not report crimes that your contractor agency responded to while serving areas outside of your contract.

If you are a law enforcement agency affiliated with an educational institution (e.g., a university/college police department or school district police department), report only those UCR crimes for which your agency was the primary responding law enforcement agency. Generally, this is restricted to crime committed on campus areas. Do not report UCR data for the municipality or county in which your educational institution is located and do not report crimes for which another agency was the primary responding law enforcement agency.

If your agency is a NIBRS reporting agency, please ensure that your data is reported in UCR Summary Data style.

If your agency does not officially report to UCR or to NIBRS, please enter the actual number of incidents reported by your agency in each calendar year as reported in your agency’s official end-of-year statistical report. Please ensure that these statistics are recorded according to the UCR Hierarchy rule (see page 10 of the UCR Handbook, which is available at www.fbi.gov/ucr/handbook/ ucrhandbook04.pdf).

Please note: For agencies that report regularly to the UCR, the expectation is that the figures reported here closely correspond to the UCR Part I crime data your agency reported to the FBI for the specified calendar years. Any major variations between official FBI data and data submitted with this application may affect your agency’s eligibility and/or affect its score and ranking on this application.

Section 8: Continuation of Project after Federal Funding Ends Sample text for Hiring grants – text will vary depending on program requirements

A. Continuation of Project after Federal Funding Ends (For COPS Grants with Retention Plan Requirement)

Applicants for COPS hiring grants which include a post-grant retention requirement must plan to retain all positions awarded for a minimum of 12 months at the conclusion of federal funding for each position.    Responses to the questions in this section will serve as your agency’s retention plan.    The retained COPS-funded positions should be added to your agency’s law enforcement budget with state and/or local funds at the end of grant funding, over and above the number of locally-funded positions that would have existed in the absence of the grant.    At the time of grant application, applicants must affirm that they plan to retain the positions and identify the planned source(s) of retention funding.   

B. Continuation of Project after Federal Funding Ends (For COPS Grant with No Retention Plan Requirement)

The questions in this section will be used for programs WITHOUT a retention requirement (i.e., earmarks, SOS, TRGP E/T, CSPP) to report any plans to continue the program or activity after the conclusion of federal funding.   

Section 9: School Safety Assessment – Applies to SOS applicants only

All FY <      > Secure Our Schools applicants MUST have either conducted a school safety assessment within the last three years for the school(s) targeted through this grant application or conduct a school safety assessment within the 2 year grant implementation period for the targeted schools. The assessment should be utilized as strategic evaluation tools to identify school safety problems related to the prevention of violence at the school(s) targeted through this grant application. An applicant that has not conducted an assessment may request funding to have an assessment completed. For applicants that have not conducted an assessment and will not be requesting funding for an assessment, you must provide a detailed explanation in question #6 demonstrating how your department will implement a school safety assessment.

Agencies which have conducted a school safety assessment within the last three years for the schools targeted through this grant application must answer a list of questions regarding the assessment. You will be required to link requested budget items to the assessment in the budget narrative to the maximum extent possible.

If your agency has not conducted a school safety assessment for the targeted schools within the last three years, your agency will still be required to answer a list of questions, but these questions will be focused on when the assessment will be completed during the implementation. Your agency MUST conduct a school safety assessment within the 2 year grant implementation period. If your agency is not requesting funding for a school safety assessment through this grant application, you must provide a detailed explanation to question #6 and you must still answer all applicable questions regarding the planned assessment. Please note that your agency may request other allowable items and is not limited to requesting funding solely for a school safety assessment. To the extent possible, applicants should link other requested budget items to the planned assessment. As part of the list of questions, applicants should provide responses directly related to the Secure Our Schools statutory assurance.

Agencies which have conducted a school safety assessment within the last three years must answer questions 1-5 regarding the assessment. If your agency has not conducted a school safety assessment within the last three years, you must answer questions 6-11, but these questions will be focused on the assessment that will be conducted during the grant implementation period. Your agency may request funding through this grant application to conduct a school safety assessment. Please note, your agency may request other allowable items and is not limited to funding solely a school safety assessment.

Applicants Who Have Conducted School Safety Assessments Within the Last Three Years (Questions 1-5)

1. When was the assessment conducted? <<Insert date>>

2. Who conducted the assessment? Identify ALL internal and external parties involved (e.g. teachers, students, parents, community stakeholders, local businesses, emergency management personnel, security assessment evaluators and/or consultants).

❏ Teachers ❏ Emergency Management Personnel

❏ Students ❏ School Security/Safety Personnel

❏ ❏Parents ❏ Consultants

❏ ❏Community Stakeholders ❏ School Administrators

❏ ❏Local Business ❏ Other <<Insert text ≤100 words>>

3. Identify what aspects of school safety and security were assessed. Select all that apply:

❏ Security and Surveillance Systems ❏ School Code of Conduct

❏ Building Access Control ❏ Emergency Preparedness/Crisis Plans

❏ Classroom Security ❏ School Incident and Discipline Data

❏ Student and Teacher Handbooks ❏ Evaluation of Site Access Control Systems

❏ Emergency Communications ❏ Indoor/Outdoor Athletic Facilities

❏ Safety and Security of School Grounds ❏ Other << Insert text ≤100 words>>

4. Did the assessment include any staff, teacher, student, or parent survey data related to school climate?

❏ Yes ❏ No

If yes, please describe the survey instrument your agency used. Answers are limited to 500 characters.

<< text box for answer>>

5. What were the findings of the assessment? Specifically outline the areas of the school(s) where problems were identified and the proposed recommendations for resolution. Please note: All budget items requested must be justified in your budget narrative as a result of these findings of the assessment. Answers are limited to 2000 characters.

<< text box for answer>>

Applicants Who Have Not Conducted School Safety Assessments Within the Last Three Years (Questions 6-11)

6. When will the assessment be conducted? << Proposed date>> The School Safety Assessment MUST be conducted within the grant implementation period.

7. Did your agency request monies through this grant application to conduct a school safety assessment and include a description of the planned school safety assessment in the budget narrative?

❏ Yes ❏ No

If your agency answered no, please explain your response. Answers are limited to 1000 characters

<< text box for answer>>

8. Who will conduct the assessment? Identify ALL internal and external parties that may be involved. Select all that apply:

❏ Teachers ❏ Emergency Management Personnel

❏ Students ❏ School Security/Safety Personnel

❏ Parents ❏ Consultants

❏ Community Stakeholders ❏ School Administrators

❏ Local Business ❏ Other <<Insert text ≤100 words>>

9. Identify what aspects of school safety and security will be assessed. Select all that apply:

❏ Security and Surveillance Systems ❏ School Code of Conduct

❏ Building Access Control ❏ Emergency Preparedness/Crisis Plans

❏ Classroom Security ❏ School Incident and Discipline Data

❏ Student and Teacher Handbook ❏ Evaluation of Site Access Control Systems

❏ Emergency Communications ❏ Indoor/Outdoor Athletic Facilities

❏ Safety and Security of School Grounds    ❏ Other <<Insert text ≤100 words>>

10. Does your agency plan to include any staff, teacher, student, or parent survey data related to school climate?

❏ Yes ❏ No

If yes, please describe the survey instrument your agency plans to use. Answers are limited to 1000 characters.

<< text box for answer>>

11. Specifically outline the areas of the school(s) where problems were identified and the proposed recommendations for resolution. Pease note all budget items requested must be justified in your budget narrative as a result of these findings of the preliminary assessment. Answers are limited to 2000 characters.

<< text box for answer>>

Section 10:    Executive Summary – Sample Text – if required, will vary by program.

Applicants are required to complete Section 10 of the COPS Application Attachment to the SF-424 Form. Briefly summarize (in 3,000 characters or less) how your agency intends to use this grant funding, if awarded, including how your proposed CPD project will address the topic area for which you are applying. This information may be used to keep Congress or other executive branch agencies informed about COPS CPD projects.

Section 11:    Project Description (Narrative)—Sample text – will vary by program if required.

Agencies that seek funding under this program are required to submit a separate narrative addressing how the grant will establish or enhance existing comprehensive methamphetamine reduction efforts through coordinated prevention, intervention/treatment, and enforcement activities. Programs may address any or all of the following areas:

Child Endangerment, Enforcement, Intelligence Gathering, Drug Courts, Partnership Development, Precursor Chemicals, Prevention, Production, Training, and/or Treatment. Your agency is not required to submit supporting documentation with this application. However, your agency must maintain copies of the records used in this grant submission for future review in the event of a site visit, audit, or other request. Data used must be data that was recorded in official records. Please do not submit any confidential data or reports with your application.

Failure to respond to any of the points below may delay the processing of your application, or result in its denial. Use the instructions below to provide a comprehensive summary of all activities that will take place to permanently reduce the existence of methamphetamine in your jurisdiction. Agencies should also familiarize themselves with An Evaluation of the COPS Office Methamphetamine Initiative to help in developing an effective program (www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/ric/Publications/meth initiative.pdf).

Please limit your response to xx characters or less.

Narrative Sections – Sample Text – Actual requirements will vary by program

A. Problem Identification and Justification

Please describe the meth-related problem(s) that will be addressed with this grant, and provide relevant facts, statistics, or other supporting information that documents the nature, prevalence, and severity of the problem.

B. Project Goals and Objectives

Define the vision, goals, and objectives that you are ultimately trying to accomplish through federal assistance and how the proposed project would fit into an overall effort to address the problems identified above.

C. Community Policing Strategies/Crime Prevention Activities

Please provide information on the proposed community policing activities that will be implemented or enhanced with grant funding. Please address each of the following elements of community policing: (a) community partnerships and support, including consultation with community groups, private and/or other public agencies; (b) related governmental and community initiatives that complement your agency’s proposed use of Meth funding; and (c) organizational transformation – how your agency will use these funds, if awarded, to help reorient its mission to community policing or enhance its involvement in and commitment to community policing.

Agencies that seek funding under this program must provide information on how the community policing activities described will link to the overall organizational community policing strategy of the agency.

This response will serve (along with the answers to the community policing questions answered previously) as your agency's community policing plan. Your agency may be monitored or audited to ensure that it is initiating or enhancing community policing in accordance with this plan.

D. Implementation Plan

How will you ensure effective implementation of the project? Include a brief timeline with a list of key activities and milestones to take place within the life of the grant. Activities may be grouped by month, quarter, or other format at the applicant’s discretion.

E. Evaluation Plan/Effectiveness of Program

Although a formal evaluation of the COPS Methamphetamine Initiative is not a requirement for funding, the COPS Office strongly encourages applicants to consider how they will determine if grant funding was effective in addressing the problems outlined above. If your agency intends to have an evaluation plan in place, please describe it here.

F. Project Description (Narrative) Attachment

Section 12:    Official Partner(s) Contact Information (if applicable)

An official "partner" under the grant may be a governmental, private, school district, or other applicable entity that has established a legal, contractual, or other agreement with the applicant for the purpose of supporting and working together for mutual benefits of the grant.

Section 13:    Application Attachments (if applicable)   

Specific instructions will be added to explain any required attachments.

This section should be used to attach any required or applicable attachments to your grant application (e.g., a Memorandum of Understanding, etc.).   

If a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is required under the grant, this document should define the roles and responsibilities of the individuals and partner(s) involved in your proposed project.

[The program-specific Application Guide will provide further instructions on the MOU or other application attachments which may be required.    The Guide will also specify if optional attachments are permitted for submission.]

Section 14: Budget Detail Worksheets (Instructions)—Sample Text – will change with each program.

Instructions for Completing the Budget Detail Worksheets

The following Budget Detail Worksheets are designed to allow all COPS grant and cooperative agreement applicants to use the same budget forms to request funding. Please refer to the Allowable/Unallowable Costs section of this program guide, since these costs vary widely among programs.

To assist you, sample Budget Detail Worksheets are included in this Application Guide.

Please complete each section of the Budget Detail Worksheets as applicable. If you are not requesting anything under a particular budget category, please check the appropriate box in that category indicating that no positions or items are requested.

All calculations should be rounded to the nearest whole dollar. Once the budget for your proposal has been completed, a budget summary page will reflect the total amounts requested in each category and the total project costs.

If you need assistance in completing the Budget Detail Worksheets, please call the COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770.

Applicable Budget Worksheets under CHP: A, Parts 1, 2 and 3 (if local match is required)

A. Sworn Officer Positions

Instructions: This worksheet will assist your agency in reporting your agency’s current entry-level salary and benefits and identifying the total salary and benefits request per officer position for the length of the grant term. Please list the current entry-level base salary and fringe benefits rounded to the nearest whole dollar for one full-time sworn officer position within your agency. Do not include employee contributions. Please refer to the program-specific Application Guide for information on the length of the grant term for the program under which you are applying.

Complete the Budget Detail Worksheet based upon your agency’s current first-year full-time entry-level salaries and fringe benefits for your locally-funded officers. Increases for Year 2 and Year 3 will need to be projected to complete the total three-year full-time entry-level salary and fringe benefits per officer request.

Please note that even if your agency is applying only for funds to rehire experienced officers who have been or are scheduled to be laid off, you must complete your budget request based on your current full-time entry-level salaries and fringe benefits. Any additional costs higher than entry-level for rehired officers must be paid with local funds.

Special note regarding sworn officer fringe benefits: For agencies that do not include fringe benefits as part of the base salary costs and typically calculate these separately, the allowable expenditures may be included under Part 1, Section B. Any fringe benefits that are already included as part of the agency’s base salary (Part 1, Section A of the Sworn Officer Budget Worksheet) should not be repeated in the separate fringe listing (Part 1, Section B).

Aside from Social Security, Medicare, health insurance, life insurance, the following are allowable fringe benefits:

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Prescription Drugs

Sick Days

Vacation Days

Holiday Pay

Retirement Pension

Worker’s Compensation

Unemployment

Disability Insurance

Accidental Death and Disability

401K Plan

Liability Insurance

Shift Differential Payments

Accident Insurance

Bonding Insurance

Police Trust

State Funded Retirement System

Professional Liability Insurance

Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) Tax

Survivor Benefit

Other benefits, such as training, equipment (e.g., uniforms, weapons, or vehicles), severance pay, hazard pay, etc., are not allowed. The COPS Office will not pay for any fringe benefits not listed, and if your agency pays those benefits for locally-funded officer positions, your agency will be required to do so for CHP-funded officer positions with local funds.

Please review your agency’s current entry-level salary and benefits costs and identify your agency’s total three-year salary and benefits request per officer position. Be mindful that all 2013 CHP total 3-year salary and benefits requests will be capped at $125,000 per officer position.    Please ensure that the base salary and all fringe benefits entered into your application are accurate prior to submitting your application.

Sample Budget Detail Worksheet

The sample Budget Detail Worksheet that is included has been completed to assist you in submitting your budget information.

Budget Worksheet Part 1: Full-Time Sworn Officer Information

Section A:

The agency entered $36,000.00 as the annual first-year entry-level base salary (referred to as annual base salary or “ABS”) of a full-time sworn officer position in its department. The ABS cannot be higher than what the agency currently pays for this position locally. Your agency should only provide the ABS for one position in this section; the agency will have the opportunity in Section C to indicate the total number of positions being requested.

Section B:

Social Security cannot exceed 6.2 percent of the ABS. In the sample, the agency entered zero and checked the “Exempt” box. Agencies that pay a fixed rate that is less than 6.2 percent should check the “Fixed Rate” box.

Medicare cannot exceed 1.45 percent of the ABS. In the sample, the agency entered the maximum allowable amount of $522.00 ($36,000.00 X 1.45% = $522.00).

For health insurance, life insurance, vacation, sick leave, retirement, worker’s compensation, and unemployment insurance, agencies should indicate the dollar amount and percentage of the ABS that it pays for fringe benefits in the first year for a full-time entry-level sworn officer position. For worker’s compensation and unemployment insurance, agencies may indicate that they are exempt by checking the appropriate box.

There are several other fringe categories that are allowable under this grant program, and they are listed in the drop-down menu. Your agency can pick as many of the categories as are applicable to your agency and fill in the dollar amount and percentage of the ABS for each one.

In the sample, the agency entered $16,362.00 for the total first-year entry-level fringe benefits for a full-time sworn officer position in its department.

Section C:

The Budget Worksheet will automatically calculate the total Year 1 salary and fringe benefits for one entry-level full-time sworn officer position for your agency in Section C, which for the sample equals $52,362.00.

For Year 2 and Year 3, agencies are required to provide projections for the salary and fringe benefits for an entry-level full-time officer position. Agencies are also required to maintain records documenting how it calculated its projections. There are many ways that an agency may calculate and document the salary and fringe benefits projections. For example, the figures can be based on a contractual agreement that guarantees cost of living or other increases; budget projections that the agency is using to calculate other salaries and fringe benefits for future years; or the average percentage increase in salaries and benefits that the agency experienced over the last five years. The important thing is that your agency estimates the costs to the best of its ability and keeps the supporting documentation in your agency’s grant file in case of future audit or monitoring of your CHP grant.

For Year 2, the agency estimated the salary at $37,080 and fringe benefits at $16,853. For Year 3, the agency estimated the salary at $38,192 and fringe benefits at $17,359.

Based on the figures for Year 1, 2, and 3, the Budget Worksheet will automatically calculate the total three-year salary and fringe benefits. In addition, the Budget Worksheet will automatically calculate total project costs based on the number of officer positions your agency requested in the application.

Please note that the COPS Office uses the information provided in the Budget Worksheet to determine the amount of your CHP grant, if awarded, so your agency must ensure that the figures are accurate.

Budget Worksheet Part 2: Sworn Officer Salary Information

All agencies that have an estimated increase in salaries and/or fringe benefits over the life of the grant are required to provide a reason(s) why. Agencies should check all the boxes that apply. In the sample, the agency checked that the increases were due to cost of living adjustments and step raises.

Budget Worksheet Part 3: Federal/Local Share Costs (for Hiring Grants)

The first chart in Part 3 will indicate the total salary and benefits for the 3-year grant period, and the required local share.    The minimum local match requirement is 25 percent of the total project cost, and the cap on the amount of funding that can be requested per officer position is $125,000 over 3 years (36 months). Any additional cost above the local match and officer funding cap will be the responsibility of the grantee agency.    Grantees are also required to pay a progressively larger share of the cost of the grant with local funds over the grant period.    The second chart is a projection of the planned federal and local shares of the total project costs over the 3-year period of the grant; while your agency may deviate from these specific projections during the grant period, it must still endure that the federal share decreases and the local share increases.

Budget Worksheet Part 4: Waiver of the Local Match

The COPS Office may grant a waiver of some or all of a grantee’s local match requirement.    During the application review process, your agency’s waiver request will be evaluated based on the availability of funding, a demonstration of severe fiscal distress as supported by the fiscal health data provided in Section 7 of this application, and comparison of your fiscal health data with that of the overall 2013 CHP applicant pool.    Therefore, you should carefully determine the maximum local share your agency would be able to contribute if awarded.    If you agency requests a waiver, you must respond to the Question 1b of Budget Worksheet Part 4.    Please indicate if we should continue to consider your application if the waiver request is not granted or whether it should be removed from consideration once that determination is made.    If your application is funded, bur for a reduced number of officer positions, the percentage of local share provided above will be applied to the total project cost of the awarded officers.

Budget Summary

The Budget Summary will automatically calculate total project costs based on the figures provided in the Budget Worksheet and the number of officer positions requested in the application.    It will also calculate the amount of the local match requirement.    If your agency requested a waiver of the local match, the federal and local share will be calculated based on the waiver request.

Section 15: Assurances and Certifications

Applicants to COPS programs are required to sign and submit the standard Assurances and Certifications forms. Signing these documents assures the COPS Office that you have read, understand, and accept the grant terms and conditions as outlined in the Assurances and Certifications. Please read these documents carefully as signatures on these documents are treated as material representation of fact upon which reliance will be placed when the Department of Justice determines to award the covered grant.

A. Assurances

B. Certifications

Section 16:    Disclosure of Lobbying Activities

This disclosure form shall be completed by the reporting entity, whether subawardee or prime federal recipient, at the initiation or receipt of a covered federal action, or a material change to a previous filing, pursuant to title 31 U.S.C. section 1352. The filing of a form is required for each payment or agreement to make payment to any lobbying entity for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with a covered federal action. Refer to the implementing guidance published by the Office of Management and Budget for additional information.

If this applies to your agency, you are required to submit the Disclosure of Lobbying Activities (SF-LLL) as an attachment to your application online in Section 13: Application Attachments. Complete all items that apply for both the initial filing and material change report.

Section 17: Reviews and Certifications

Please be advised that an application may not be funded and, if awarded, a hold may be placed on this application if it is deemed that the applicant is not in compliance with federal civil rights laws, and/or is not cooperating with an ongoing federal civil rights investigation, and/or is not cooperating with a Department of Justice grant review or audit.

Applicants must certify whether or not their agency will use COPS grants funds (if awarded) to operate an interjurisdictional criminal intelligence system. If yes, the applicant assures the COPS Office that it will comply with the requirements of 28 CFR Part 23.

The signatures of the Law Enforcement Executive/Agency Executive, Government Executive/Financial Official, and the Person Submitting this Application on the Reviews and Certifications represent to the COPS Office that:

1. the signatories have been legally and officially authorized by the appropriate governing body to submit this application and act on behalf of the grant applicant entity;

2. the applicant will comply with all legal, administrative, and programmatic requirements that govern the applicant for acceptance and use of federal funds as outlined in the applicable COPS Application Guide, the COPS Grant Owner’s Manual, Assurances, Certifications and all other applicable program regulations, laws, orders, and circulars;

3. the applicant understands that false statements or claims made in connection with COPS programs may result in fines, imprisonment, debarment from participating in federal grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts, and/or any other remedy available by law to the federal government; AND

4. the information provided in this application, including any amendments, shall be treated as material representations of fact upon which reliance will be placed when the Department of Justice determines to award the covered grant.

The signatures of the Law Enforcement Executive/Agency Executive and the Government Executive/Financial Official in the application must be the same as those identified in Section 4 of the application. Applications with missing, incomplete, or inaccurate signatories or responses may not be considered for funding.

Section 18:    Application Data Verification

After submission of this application, the COPS Office may require your department to verify data provided in the application. This section is to be completed once the data has been reviewed, confirmed and/or updated.    Failure to respond to the request may eliminate the application from 2013 funding consideration.    The purpose of this section to confirm that the person reviewing, confirming, an/or updating the data is authorized by the appropriate governing body to act on behalf of the grant applicant entity, that the information provided, including any amendments, be treated as material representations of fact upon which reliance will be placed when the Department of Justice determines to award the covered grant, and that the applicant understands that false statements or claims made in connection with COPS Office programs may result in fines, imprisonment, debarment from participating in federal grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts, and/or other remedy available to by law to the federal government.

APPENDIXES

Appendix A: Glossary of COPS Program Terms

The following information is provided to assist you with the completion of your COPS grant program application forms. The list includes some of the most common terms that are used in the application forms. For additional assistance or clarification regarding any part of the application, please contact your Grant Program Specialist at 800.421.6770.

Allowable Costs: Allowable costs are costs that will be paid for by this grant program.

Authorized Officials: The authorized officials are the individuals in your organization who have final authority and responsibility for all programmatic and financial decisions regarding your application and, if awarded, your grant award. For law enforcement agencies, the listed Law Enforcement Executive (usually Chief of Police, Sheriff, etc.) and the Government Executive (usually Mayor, Board President, etc.) are your agency’s authorized officials.

Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR): A person authorized by your E-business POC to submit applications to Grants.gov. This privilege should be provided only to those individuals who currently have signature authority for submitting grant applications. The name of the individual designated as an AOR will be populated by the Grants.gov system in grant application package forms, which require signatures. An organization can assign as many AORs to use Grants.gov as necessary.

Automated Booking System: An automated booking system captures arrestee fingerprints and photographic information electronically and often has the ability to transfer that information to a departmental or statewide database.

Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS): An AFIS system is a highly specialized biometrics system that compares a single fingerprint image with a database of fingerprint images. Fingerprint images are collected from crime scenes or are taken from criminal suspects when they are arrested. Fingerprint images may be captured by placing a finger on a scanner or by electronically scanning inked impressions on paper.

Award Start Date: This is the date on or after which your agency is authorized to purchase items or hire positions that were approved by the COPS Office. If awarded, the award start date is found on your grant Award Document. Grantees may not make any purchases or hire any positions prior to this date without written approval from the COPS Office.

Career Law Enforcement Officer: The COPS statute defines a “career law enforcement officer” as a person hired on a permanent basis who is authorized by law, or by a state or local public agency, to engage in or oversee the prevention, detection, or investigation of violations of criminal laws.

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA): The CFDA is an annual government-wide publication that contains a description and index of all forms of federal assistance. Each program is assigned a “CFDA number,” which is used by auditors to track grant revenues under the Single Audit Act. It is also used in participating states by State Single Points of Contact in conducting the required intergovernmental reviews under Executive Order 12372. The CFDA number for all COPS programs is 16.710.

.

Closeout: The process in which the awarding agency, the COPS Office, determines that all applicable administrative actions and all required work and conditions of the award have been completed and met by the recipient and awarding agency.

Cognizant Federal Agency: The federal agency that generally provides the most federal financial assistance to the recipient of funds. Cognizance is assigned by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Community Oriented Policing: Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime.

Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system: A computer database that can track calls for service, maintain status of units available, provide various reports, produce address histories, and support electronic mail. With the installation of integrated CAD systems, officers are able to receive calls for service on their mobile data terminals rather than over the radio. Radios can then be used only for serious emergencies.

Consortium: A consortium is a group of two or more governmental entities that agree to form a partnership to provide law enforcement services to their constituent communities.

COPS Finance Staff: The COPS Finance staff handle your agency’s financial and budgetary needs related to your application. A Staff Accountant is assigned to your state, and is available to answer any questions that you may have concerning the financial aspects of your grant, if awarded. To identify your Staff Accountant, please call the COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770, or visit the COPS web site at www.cops.usdoj.gov.

COPS Office: The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (the COPS Office) is the office within the U.S. Department of Justice that, if awarded, is your “grantor” or “awarding” agency for your COPS grant or cooperative agreement. The COPS Office is responsible for administering your grant for the entire grant period. You can reach the COPS Office at 800.421.6770.

DUNS Number: DUNS stands for “data universal numbering system.” DUNS numbers are issued by Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) and consist of nine digits. If your institution does not have one, call 866.705.5711 to receive one free of charge. You can also request your DUNS number online at www.dnb.com/us.

E-Business Point of Contact (POC): Person who will designate which staff members can submit applications through Grants.gov. When you register with SAM, your institution will be asked to designate an E-Business POC.

EPIC (El Paso Intelligence Center) National Clandestine Laboratory Seizure Database: The U.S. Department of Justice maintains this database to track seizure of clandestine drug laboratories. It contains addresses of some locations where law enforcement agencies reported they found chemicals or other items that indicated the presence of either clandestine drug laboratories or dumpsites. For more information, please visit www.usdoj.gov/dea/programs/epic.htm or www.usdoj.gov/dea/seizures/index.html.

Federally Recognized Tribe: Tribal entities that are recognized and eligible for funding and services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs by virtue of their status as Indian tribes. They are acknowledged to have the immunities and privileges available to other federally acknowledged Indian tribes by virtue of their government-to-government relationship with the United States as well as the responsibilities, power, limitation, and obligations of such tribes. Only Federally Recognized Tribes are eligible to apply for COPS grant funds. For further information, contact: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Division of Tribal Government Services, MS-4631-MIB, 1849 C Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20240, 202.208.2475.

Gas Mask: A gas mask is connected to a chemical air filter and is used to protect the face and lungs from toxic gases.

GNIS ID: The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) database is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior. The database assigns a unique, permanent feature identifier, the Feature ID, which is the only standard federal key for integrating or reconciling feature data from multiple datasets.

Global Positioning System (GPS): Global Positioning Systems are a series of 24 geosynchronous satellites that continuously transmit their position. Each system is used in personal tracking, navigation, and automatic vehicle location technologies.

Grant Number: If awarded, the grant number identifies your agency’s specific grant, and can be found on your grant Award Document. This number should be used as a reference when corresponding with the COPS Office. The COPS Office tracks grant information based upon this number.

Interoperable Communications: Communications interoperability refers to the ability to talk across disciplines and jurisdictions via radio communications networks on demand, in real time. Interoperable communications equipment and technology is used to increase interoperability and data information-sharing among the law enforcement, fire service, and emergency medical service communities.

Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS): The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ LAUS program provides monthly estimates of unemployment for communities. For more information and detailed instructions for looking up your local area’s unemployment rate, please visit www.bls.gov/lau/data.htm.

Local Budget Cycle: Your agency’s fiscal year. Some common examples include January 1 to December 31, October 1 to September 30, and July 1 to June 30. Some local budget cycles may extend up to 24 months.

M-PIN: Password used by your e-business point of contact to designate which staff members can submit applications to Grants.gov.

Matching Funds: What a locality must contribute as a cash match toward total allowable project costs over the life of the program.

Military Veteran:    Under the FY2013 COPS Hiring Program, a military veteran is defined as an individual who has served on active duty at any time in the armed forces for a period of more than 180 consecutive days, any part of which occurred on or after September 11, 2001, and who has been discharged or released from active duty in the armed forces under honorable conditions.

Mobile Data Computer/Laptop: A Mobile Data Computer (MDC) is a computer terminal mounted in a vehicle that is linked via wireless communication to a network that is often integrated with a CAD system. MDCs enable officers to complete previously handwritten reports on a computer. This often eliminates the need to enter duplicate information on multiple reports.

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS): A comprehensive reporting database. Agencies provide individual records for eight index crimes and 38 other offenses.

Obligation of Funds: If this application is awarded, the COPS Office “obligates” federal funds when the grant Award Document is signed by the Director or his/her designated official. For the grantee, grant funds are “obligated” when monies are spent directly on purchasing items approved under the grant or cooperative agreement. The term encumbrance is often times used at the local and state levels to describe this type of transaction. Liquidated obligations are considered cash outlays or monies actually spent. Unliquidated obligations are obligations incurred and recorded but not yet paid (accrual basis of accounting) or not yet recorded and not yet paid (cash basis of accounting).

OJP Vendor Number/EIN Number: This is your agency’s nine-digit federal tax identification number assigned to you by the IRS. Your accounting/bookkeeping department should have this number. If your EIN previously has been assigned to another agency within your jurisdiction, the Office of the Comptroller will assign a new OJP vendor number to you. The new assigned number is to be used for administrative purposes only, in connection with this grant program, and should not be used for IRS purposes.

ORI (Originating Agency Identifier) Number: This number is assigned by the FBI and is your agency’s originating agency identifier. The first two letters are your state abbreviation, the next three numbers are your county’s code, and the final two numbers identify your jurisdiction within your county. When you contact the COPS Office with a question, you can use the ORI number, and we will be able to assist you. If you are a previous COPS grant recipient, you may have been assigned an ORI number through the COPS Office if the FBI had not previously assigned your agency this identifier number.

Primary Law Enforcement Authority: An agency with primary law enforcement authority is defined as the first responder to calls for service for all types of criminal incidents within its jurisdiction. Agencies are not considered to have primary law enforcement authority if they only: respond to or investigate specific type(s) of crime(s); respond to or investigate crimes within a correctional institution; serve warrants; provide courthouse security; transport prisoners; and/or have cases referred to them for investigation or investigational support.

The Public Safety Partnership and Community Policing Act of 1994:

The COPS Office is charged with fulfilling the mandates of this law. The purposes of the law are to:

• Increase the number of community policing officers on the beat.

• Provide additional and more effective training to law enforcement officers to enhance their problem-solving, service, and other skills needed in interacting with members of the community.

• Encourage the development and implementation of innovative programs to permit members of the community to assist law enforcement agencies in the prevention of crime.

• Encourage the development of new technologies to assist law enforcement agencies in reorienting the emphasis of their activities from reacting to crime to preventing crime.

• School Resource Officer (SRO): A career law enforcement officer, with sworn authority, deployed in community-oriented policing, and assigned by the employing police department or agency to work in collaboration with schools and community-based organizations to (a) address crime and disorder problems, gangs, and drug activities affecting or occurring in our around and elementary or secondary school; (b) to deploy or expand crime prevention efforts for students; (C) to educated likely school-age victims in crime prevention and safety; (D) to develop or expand community justice initiatives for students’ (E) to train students in conflict resolution, restorative justice, and crime awareness; (F) to assist in the identification of physical changes in the environment that may reduce crime in or around the school; and (G) to assist in developing school policy that addresses crime and to recommend procedural changes.

Supplanting: COPS grant funds may not be used to supplant (replace) state, local, or Bureau of Indian Affairs funds that would be made available in the absence of federal COPS grant funding. Program funds must be used to increase the amount of state, local, or Bureau of Indian Affairs funds otherwise budgeted for the grant purposes, plus any additional state, local, or Bureau of Indian Affairs funds budgeted for these purposes.

System of Award Management (SAM):    Institutions applying for any type of award from the federal government must register with SAM. The SAM database is the repository for standard information about federal financial assistance applicants, recipients, and sub-recipients. Applicants must update or renew their SAM at least once per year to maintain an active status. Information about registration procedures can be accessed at www.sam.gov.

Appendix B: Intergovernmental Review Process, Points of Contact by State

Executive Order 12372 requires applicants from state and local units of government, or other organizations or individuals providing service within a state, to submit a copy of the application to the state Single Point of Contact (SPOC), if one exists, and if this program has been selected for review by the state. Before the application due date, you must contact your state SPOC to find out if this program has been selected for review and comply with the state’s process under Executive Order 12372. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance reference for this program is number 16.710 “Public Safety and Community Policing Grants.”

A current list of state SPOCs is listed at www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants/spoc.html. States that are not listed have chosen not to participate in the intergovernmental review process, and therefore do not have a SPOC.

Appendix C: Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) Reporting and Executive Compensation Terms and Conditions

Reporting Subawards and Executive Compensation.

a. Reporting of first-tier subawards.

1. Applicability. Unless you are exempt as provided in paragraph d. of this award term, you must report each action that obligates $25,000 or more in Federal funds that does not include Recovery funds (as defined in section 1512(a)(2) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Pub. L. 111–5) for a subaward to an entity (see definitions in paragraph e. of this award term).

2. Where and when to report.

i. You must report each obligating action described in paragraph a.1. of this award term to www.fsrs.gov.

ii. For subaward information, report no later than the end of the month following the month in which the obligation was made. (For example, if the obligation was made on November 7, 2010, the obligation must be reported by no later than December 31, 2010.)

3. What to report. You must report the information about each obligating action that the submission instructions posted at www.fsrs.gov specify.

b. Reporting Total Compensation of Recipient Executives.

1. Applicability and what to report. You must report total compensation for each of your five most highly compensated executives for the preceding completed fiscal year, if—

i. the total Federal funding authorized to date under this award is $25,000 or more;

ii. in the preceding fiscal year, you received—

(A) 80 percent or more of your annual gross revenues from Federal procurement contracts (and subcontracts) and Federal financial assistance subject to the Transparency Act, as defined at 2 CFR 170.320 (and subawards); and

(B) $25,000,000 or more in annual gross revenues from Federal procurement contracts (and subcontracts) and Federal financial assistance subject to the Transparency Act, as defined at 2 CFR 170.320 (and subawards); and

iii. The public does not have access to information about the compensation of the executives through periodic reports filed under section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78m(a), 78o(d)) or section 6104 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. (To determine if the public has access to the compensation information, see the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission total compensation filings at www.sec.gov/answers/execomp.htm.)

2. Where and when to report. You must report executive total compensation described in paragraph b.1. of this award term:

i. As part of your registration profile at www.ccr.gov.

ii. By the end of the month following the month in which this award is made, and annually thereafter.

c. Reporting of Total Compensation of Subrecipient Executives.

1. Applicability and what to report. Unless you are exempt as provided in paragraph d. of this award term, for each first-tier subrecipient under this award, you shall report the names and total compensation of each of the subrecipient’s five most highly compensated executives for the subrecipient’s preceding completed fiscal year, if—

i. in the subrecipient’s preceding fiscal year, the subrecipient received—

(A) 80 percent or more of its annual gross revenues from Federal procurement contracts (and subcontracts) and Federal financial assistance subject to the Transparency Act, as defined at 2 CFR 170.320 (and subawards); and

(B) $25,000,000 or more in annual gross revenues from Federal procurement contracts (and subcontracts), and Federal financial assistance subject to the Transparency Act (and subawards); and

ii. The public does not have access to information about the compensation of the executives through periodic reports filed under section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78m(a), 78o(d)) or section 6104 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. (To determine if the public has access to the compensation information, see the U.S. Security and

Exchange Commission total compensation filings at http://www.sec.gov/answers/execomp.htm.)

2. Where and when to report. You must report subrecipient executive total compensation described in paragraph c.1. of this award term:

i. To the recipient.

ii. By the end of the month following the month during which you make the subaward. For example, if a subaward is obligated on any date during the month of October of a given year (i.e., between October 1 and 31), you must report any required compensation information of the subrecipient by November 30 of that year.

d. Exemptions
If, in the previous tax year, you had gross income, from all sources, under $300,000, you are exempt from the requirements to report:

i. Subawards, and

ii. The total compensation of the five most highly compensated executives of any subrecipient.

e. Definitions. For purposes of this award term:

1. Entity means all of the following, as defined in 2 CFR part 25:

i. A Governmental organization, which is a State, local government, or Indian tribe;

ii. A foreign public entity;

iii. A domestic or foreign nonprofit organization;

iv. A domestic or foreign for-profit organization;

v. A Federal agency, but only as a subrecipient under an award or subaward to a non-Federal entity.

2. Executive means officers, managing partners, or any other employees in management positions.

3. Subaward:

i. This term means a legal instrument to provide support for the performance of any portion of the substantive project or program for which you received this award and that you as the recipient award to an eligible subrecipient.

ii. The term does not include your procurement of property and services needed to carry out the project or program (for further explanation, see Sec. ll .210 of the attachment to OMB Circular A–133, ‘‘Audits of States, Local Governments, and Non-Profit Organizations’’).

iii. A subaward may be provided through any legal agreement, including an agreement that you or a subrecipient considers a contract.

4. Subrecipient means an entity that:

i. Receives a subaward from you (the recipient) under this award; and

ii. Is accountable to you for the use of the Federal funds provided by the subaward.

5. Total compensation means the cash and noncash dollar value earned by the executive during the recipient’s or subrecipient’s preceding fiscal year and includes the following (for more information see 17 CFR 229.402(c)(2)):

i. Salary and bonus.

ii. Awards of stock, stock options, and stock appreciation rights. Use the dollar amount recognized for financial statement reporting purposes with respect to the fiscal year in accordance with the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 123 (Revised 2004) (FAS 123R), Shared Based Payments.

iii. Earnings for services under non-equity incentive plans. This does not include group life, health, hospitalization or medical reimbursement plans that do not discriminate in favor of executives, and are available generally to all salaried employees.

iv. Change in pension value. This is the change in present value of defined benefit and actuarial pension plans.

v. Above-market earnings on deferred compensation which is not tax-qualified.

vi. Other compensation, if the aggregate value of all such other compensation (e.g. severance, termination payments, value of life insurance paid on behalf of the employee, perquisites or property) for the executive exceeds $10,000.

APPENDIX D: System of Award Management (SAM) and Universal Identifier Requirements Award Terms

I. Central Contractor Registration and Universal Identifier Requirements

A. Requirement for System of Award Management (SAM) Registration

Unless you are exempted from this requirement under 2 C.F.R. 25.110, you as the recipient must maintain the currency of your information in the SAM until you submit the final financial report required under this award or receive the final payment, whichever is later. This requires that you review and update the information at least annually after the initial registration, and more frequently if required by changes in your information or another award term.

B. Requirement for Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) Numbers

If you are authorized to make subawards under this award, you:

1. Must notify potential subrecipients that no entity (see definition in paragraph C of this award term) may receive a subaward from you unless the entity has provided its DUNS number to you.

2. May not make a subaward to an entity unless the entity has provided its DUNS number to you.

C. Definitions

For purposes of this award term:

1. System of Award Management (SAM) means the federal repository into which an entity must provide information required for the conduct of business as a recipient. Additional information about registration procedures may be found at the SAM Internet site (currently at www.sam.gov).

2. Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number means the nine-digit number established and assigned by Dun and Bradstreet, Inc. (D&B) to uniquely identify business entities. A DUNS number may be obtained from D&B by telephone (currently 866-705-5711) or the Internet (currently at http://fedgov. dnb.com/webform).

3. Entity, as it is used in this award term, means all of the following, as defined at 2 C.F.R. part 25, subpart C:

a. A Governmental organization, which is a state, local government, or Indian Tribe;

b. A foreign public entity;

c. A domestic or foreign nonprofit organization;

d. A domestic or foreign for-profit organization; and

e. A federal agency, but only as a subrecipient under an award or subaward to a non-Federal entity.

4. Subaward:

a. This term means a legal instrument to provide support for the performance of any portion of the substantive project or program for which you received this award and that you, as the recipient, award to an eligible subrecipient.

b. The term does not include your procurement of property and services needed to carry out the project or program (for further explanation, see Sec. __.210 of the attachment to OMB Circular A-133, “Audits of States, Local Governments, and Non- Profit Organizations”).

c. A subaward may be provided through any legal agreement, including an agreement that you consider a contract.

5. Subrecipient means an entity that:

a. Receives a subaward from you under this award; and

b. Is accountable to you for the use of the federal funds provided by the subaward

APPENDIX E:    Step-by-Step Instructions for Two-Part Application Submission Process

FY2011 COPS Grant On-line Application Procedures

Note: If your agency has previously applied for grants using Grants.gov, and you already have an account set up with your username and password, please skip Step 1 and proceed to Step 2. For additional instructions on how to register with Grants.gov please visit

www07.grants.gov/applicants/get_registered.jsp.

STEP 1

Please click the link below for details on how to register with Grants.gov.

STEP 2

Submitting a COPS Grant Application Using Grants.gov

1. Log into www.grants.gov.

2. Scroll to the center of the page and click the “Apply for Grants” link in the center of the page.

3. Click on the “Download a Grant Application Package” link.

4. Scroll down to the Funding Opportunity Number Box, and enter COPS-Application-2011. Then click on Download Package

5. Click the “Download” link at the bottom right of the page, under the Instructions & Application heading.

6. To view the SF-424 instructions, click the “Download Application Instructions” link.

7. To start the application, click the “Download Application Package” which is the second link.

8. Enter an Application Filing Name of your choice (e.g., agency legal name and program type for which you are applying) into the Application File Name Text Box, which is highlighted yellow with red border.

9. In the Mandatory Documents field:

a) Select the Application for Federal Assistance (SF-424) document, then click on the Move Form to Complete button, so that the form appears under the Mandatory Documents for Submission field.

b) Select “COPS Short Application Attachment to SF-424”, then click the Move Form to Complete button, so that the form appears under the Mandatory Documents for Submission field.

10. Select the Application for Federal Assistance and click on the Open Form button. Be sure to fill in all required fields on the displayed documents, which are highlighted yellow with red borders. Lastly, select the program to which you are applying and enter/re-enter a correct ORI.

11. Click the Save button at the very top of the document.

12. In the Save As dialogue box:

a) Select a location that is easy to find within your computer (e.g., Desktop or My Documents).

b) Select the Save button to save the file to your selected location on your computer.

** Note: You will be required to save this document twice. You may either save it in the same location which will overwrite the first one or save it in a different location for redundancy.

13. Click on the Save & Submit button at the top of the document.

14. In the Save As dialogue box:

a) Select a location that is easy to find within your computer (e.g., Desktop or My Documents).

b) Select the Save button to save the file to your selected location on your computer.

15. Enter your Username and Password for the Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR). This is set up while registering with Grants.gov.

16. Wait until Confirmation Page appears to close the document. Take note of the grant ID number provided by Grants.gov for your file.

17. After the SF-424 has been successfully submitted you will receive three emails from Grants.gov:

a) One email thanking the applicant for submission.

b) A second email confirming Grants.gov validation.

c) A third email stating the application was received by the agency.

18. Within one business day you will then receive an email from the COPS Office, either:

a) An email stating your application passed the COPS validation and providing a link to the COPS Application Program System (CAPS).

Or

b) An email stating that the COPS validation failed and that the issues must be corrected and resubmitted.

Correcting COPS Validation Errors

1. Open the application that was saved in step 12 above

2. Edit fields that had errors.

3. Select the Save & Submit button

4. In the Save As dialogue box:

a) Select a location that is easy to find within your computer (e.g., Desktop or My Documents).

b) Select the Save button to save the file to your selected location on your computer. Overwrite the existing application or save as a different file name on your computer.

5. Enter your Username and Password for the AOR account

6. Wait until the Confirmation Page appears to close the document. Take note of the new grant ID number provided by Grants.gov for your file.

7. After the SF-424 has been successfully submitted you will receive three emails from Grants.gov.

a) One email thanking the applicant for submission.

b) A second email confirming Grants.gov validation.

c) A third email stating the application was received by the agency.

8. Within one business day you will then receive an email from the COPS Office, either:

a) An email stating your application passed the COPS validation and providing a link to the COPS Application Program System (CAPS)

Or

b) An email stating that the COPS validation failed and that the issues must be corrected and resubmitted.

Paperwork Reduction Act Notice

The public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to be up to 11.3 hours per response, depending upon the COPS program being applied for, which includes time for reviewing instructions. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspects of the collection of this information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice, 145 N Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20530; and to the Public Use Reports Project, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC 20503.

You are not required to respond to this collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The OMB control number for this application is 1103-0098 and the expiration date is <insert date>.

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

145 N Street, N.E.

Washington, DC 20530

To obtain details on COPS programs, call the

COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770.

Visit COPS Online at www.cops.usdoj.gov.

January 2013