1110-0004_Support Statement A

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

1110-0004

NUMBER OF FULL-TIME LAW ENFORCEMENT EMPLOYEES AS OF OCTOBER 31

A. Justification.

1. Necessity of Information Collection

Under the authority of Title 28, U.S. Code, Section 534, Acquisition, Preservation, and Exchange of Identification Records; Appointment of Officials, June 11, 1930 the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program request data about police employee counts from city, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies throughout the country in order to generate reliable information on police employee counts.

Form 1-711, Number of Full-Time Law Enforcement Employees as of October 31, provides for the national UCR Program a yearly total count of full-time sworn male and female law enforcement officers and the total number of full-time male and female civilian employees as of October 31 of the reporting year.

This information collection is a necessity in order for the FBI to maintain a database and serve as the national clearing house for the collection and dissemination of the total number of full-time law enforcement employees both officers and civilians.

2. Needs and Uses

The 1-711 is needed in order for law enforcement agencies to report the total number of police employee counts on hard copy. The national UCR Program is able to generate reliable information annually for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management, nationwide. The information released is viewed as a guide or an indicator of police strengths, to establish manpower needs, in both number and makeup, and to provide effective enforcement and protection. Examples of other agencies' uses are:

a. Local, state, tribal, and federal agencies, domestic and foreign, have used the data for selected city population groupings to determine standard police strengths.

b. Criminal justice coordinators have used the data in the form of percentage of cities employing female officers.

c. City and county police agencies have used the data to request assistance from other departments.

d. The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, utilizes the FBI UCR Program data in awarding local law enforcement formula grants.

e. The Community Orienting Policing Servicing “COPS” Program received FBI UCR data for the purpose of awarding grant money to law enforcement agencies.

f. City councils, legislators, citizens, organizations, and social scientists have requested police employee data.

3. Use of Information Technology

Currently, 77 percent of participating law enforcement agencies submit this form electronically. Electronic submissions downloaded from state UCR systems are received via Law Enforcement Online (LEO) e-mail at [email protected], or received via magnetic media. For those state agencies unable to submit data electronically, data are received on hard copy. The FBI UCR Program made this form available as a pdf printable form on the Internet at www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/reporting-forms

Many states that participate in the FBI UCR program have a centralized repository serving as a state UCR Program. Several state UCR Programs have established electronic communications with their law enforcement agencies throughout their state. Agencies submit data to their state UCR Program and that state UCR Program subsequently forwards it to the FBI.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

This information collection was authorized in direct response to the enactment of Title 28, Section 534, U.S. Code, Acquisition, and Exchange of Identification Records; Appointment of Officials, June 11, 1930.

Another known entity that collects police employee data is the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). BJS publishes “Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies”. The BJS publishes these data every four years with 2008 being the most current available. The Bureau of Census (BOC) also presents police employee data.

The Police Employee data are critical for officer assault rates produced in Crime in the United States (CIUS) and in Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted publications. Police Employee data files are one of the most requested data files within the user community. The FBI UCR Program has successfully collected and published police employee data since the program’s inception in 1930. In December 1944, a conference was held with the then Division of Statistical Standards, the BOC, the Department of Labor, and the FBI to discuss collection duplication. The outcome of that conference was to allow the FBI to continue the data collection as requested by the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

5. Minimizing Burden on Small Businesses

This information will have no significant impact on small businesses. The FBI minimizes burden on small law enforcement agencies by allowing them to submit this collection once a year.

6. Consequences of Not Conducting or Less Frequent Collection

In order to serve as the national repository for crime reporting and to produce a reliable dataset, the FBI collects annual counts of law enforcement employees that are reported by participating FBI UCR Program contributors. There is an ever-increasing need for timely and accurate data dissemination by the FBI to assist our partners in law enforcement.

7. Special Circumstances

All data are collected/received from the FBI UCR Program participants on an annual basis. The FBI's UCR Program has established various time frames and deadlines for acquiring the annual data. There are times when special circumstances may cause an agency to request an extension. The FB's UCR Program has the authority to grant these extensions. Participation in the FBI UCR Program is voluntary.

8. Public Comments and Consultations

The 60 and 30 day notices have been submitted and published in the Federal Register with no public comments received.

9. Provision of Payments or Gifts to Respondents

The FBI's UCR Program does not provide any payment or gift to respondents.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality

This information collection does not contain personally identifiable information that may reveal the identity of an individual. The data is obtained from public agencies and are, therefore, in the public domain. The FBI UCR Program does not assure confidentiality.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

The information collection does not seek information of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimate of Respondent's Burden

The estimated hour burden on the respondent for this data collection is as follows:

Number of respondents 18,233

Frequency of responses 1/year

Total annual responses 18,233

Minutes per response 8 minutes

Annual hour burden 2,431 hours

Total number of agencies reporting 18,233

Total annual responses 18,233 x 1 = 18,233

Total annual hour burden 18,233 x 8 / 60 = 2,431 hours

13. Estimate of Cost Burden

There are no direct costs to law enforcement to participate in the FBI UCR Program other than their time to respond. With the renewal of this form respondents are not expected to incur any capital, start-up, or system maintenance costs associated with this information collection. Costs to agency Records Management System (RMS) are very difficult to obtain. Vendors do not divulge costs due to the fact that vendors charge differently from agency to agency. Many costs are built into the vendors contracts. Depending on the vendor contracts, changes mandated by law are included within the original contract with no other additional costs. However, an estimate has been projected that agencies pay an $18,000 maintenance fee every year for system maintenance costs.

14. Cost to Federal Government

According to the cost object provided by FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS), Resource Management Section, Financial Management Unit the following are generalized projections based upon prior collection activity as well as activities anticipated over the next three years for the FBI UCR Program.

Staff Costs for Data Collection and Processing

CSMU Correspondence/Documents $458,966

Data Requests $162,592

Data Collection/Analysis $1,771,397

Publications/Reports $307,368

Total Cost to Federal Government $2,700,323

15. Reason for Change in Burden

There is no increase in burden on the individual respondents; however, the overall annual burden hours have increased. This is an adjustment; an increase from 2,431 to 2,414 which is an increase of 17 and is attributable to the increase in the number of respondents.

16. Anticipated Publication Plan and Schedule

Published data are derived from data submissions furnished to the FBI from local, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies throughout the country. National, regional, and state data are published in the annual edition of CIUS.

Initial request for police employee data October

Follow-up letter requesting police employee data December, following deadline

Deadline to submit data Late December

Data Processing/Analysis November-February

Publication of data September, of following year/CIUS

17. Display of Expiration Date

All information collected under this clearance will display the OMB Clearance Number and Expiration Date.

18. Exception to the Certification Statement

The FBI’s CJIS Division does not request an exception to the certification of this information collection.