SUPPORTING STATEMENT
Part A. Justification:
1. Necessity of Information Collection.
On September 13, 1994, President Clinton signed into law the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Pub. L. 103-322). Title I of the "crime bill," the Public Safety Partnership and Community Policing Act of 1994 (the Act), authorizes the Attorney General to make grants to states, units of local government, Indian tribal governments, other public and private entities, and multi-jurisdictional or regional consortia thereof to increase police presence, to expand and improve cooperative efforts between law enforcement agencies and members of the community, to address crime and disorder problems, and to otherwise enhance public safety.
To examine the potential for community mediation to augment the effectiveness of community policing, the University of New Haven (UNH) needs to collect data from two groups: the police referring parties to mediation, and the parties participating in the mediation process. Specifically, UNH wishes to determine the amount of time officers spend responding to quality-of-life calls for service issues that may lend themselves to being resolved through the mediation process, officers’ perceptions on the utility of the mediation process in reducing their time burdens on such calls, and the experiences of the mediated parties.
Affected public who will be asked to respond are both law enforcement agencies and their civilian communities to gage both groups' satisfaction with a police-mediation referral program. The purpose of this project is to assess the Branford (CT) Police Department police officer perceptions of the effectiveness of mediation on police operations (i.e., time spent responding to minor or quality of life calls, impact on performance of duties), police officer opinions about the community mediation training they received, and the level of police officer and citizen satisfaction with mediation as a traditional police response alternative, and its general role in advancing community policing as a problem-solving tool. These surveys will be used to assess the level of police and citizen satisfaction with mediation in Branford (CT) Police Department as a traditional police response alternative.
2. Needs and Uses
The form titled “Pre-Training Police Questionnaire” aims to determine the amount of time that officers spend on quality-of-life issues, and the nature of such calls. The form also will be used to gather information about the officers’ feelings about both dealing with such calls as well as their abilities to deal with such calls before exposure to the community mediation training.
The form titled “Post-Training Police Questionnaire” aims to gather information about the officers’ experiences with and opinions about the community mediation training that they have received through the University of New Haven service provider, Community Mediation Inc.
The form titled “General Mediation Survey” aims to gather information about the experiences and opinions of the mediated parties. Specifically, UNH wishes to measure their satisfaction with the process and their perceptions regarding the fairness of the mediation process – both to themselves and to the other party involved.
3. Efforts to Minimize Burden
On the police surveys, UNH expects 55 respondents on each survey (the pre-training survey and the post-training survey). Each survey will be answered once.
On the mediation participant surveys, each participating party will complete the questionnaire upon completing mediation. The only way an individual would be required to complete the questionnaire more than once would be if the individual was involved in more than one mediation effort.
4. Efforts to Identify Duplication
There is no duplicative effort. The survey does not duplicate a current information collection instrument.
5. Methods to Minimize Burden on Small Business
There is no significant impact on small business.
6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection
A less frequent collection or fewer respondents would not allow sufficient information to perform the appropriate neighborhood assessment.
7. Special Circumstances Influencing Collection
There are no special circumstances that would influence the collection of information.
8. Reasons for Inconsistencies with 5 CFR 1320.6
There are no inconsistencies with 5 CFR 1320.6
9. Payment or Gift to Respondents
No government funds will be used as payment or for gifts to respondents.
10. Assurance of Confidentiality
No assurance of confidentiality has been made to respondents.
11. Justification for Sensitive Questions
There are no questions of a sensitive nature. No information commonly considered as private is included in the proposed requested information.
12. Estimate of Hour Burden
On the police surveys, UNH expects 55 respondents on each survey (the pre-training survey and the post-training survey), resulting in 110 responses. Each survey will be answered once, and take an estimated time of 15 minutes each to complete.
Total burden hours per year (police): 27.5 hours
On the mediation surveys, UNH estimates collecting data from 35 mediations per year at a minimum. Ideally, this means 70 responses per year assuming that no party opts out (total projected N = approximately140). As the mediation process is an ongoing process, the frequency of response will be contingent upon the mediation schedule. Each party will answer the survey once upon completion of mediation. It is expected that it will take respondents 20 minutes to complete the instrument.
Total burden hours per year (mediation parties): 23.3 hours
The total responses will be approximately 180, resulting in 51 total burden hours.
13. Estimate of Cost Burden
This collection will not generate any costs other than those associated with the applicants’ time. Therefore, the estimated burden cost is 0.
14. Estimated Annualized Cost to Federal Government
There is no additional estimated annualized cost to the Federal government. The forms and survey results will be processed by the awardee.
15. Reason for Change in Burden
No changes, proposed new collection.
16. Publication
UNH expects to publish the results in an academic journal to be determined. The data will be reported in the aggregate; any identifiers will be removed.
Request not to Display OMB Control Number
The COPS Office will display the OMB approval number and expiration date on the upper right hand corner of the collection instrument.
18. Exceptions to Certification Statement
The COPS Office does not request an exception to the certification of this information collection.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | karen beckma |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-29 |