1110-0009_Part B

1110-0009_Part B.doc

Analysis of Law Enforcement Officers Killed or Assaulted

OMB: 1110-0009

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B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods.

The potential respondent universe of Forms 1-701 Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted Program; Analysis of Officers Feloniously Killed and Assaulted and

1-701a Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted Program; Analysis of Officers Accidentally Killed (OMB No. 1110-0009) includes all duly sworn local state, tribal, and federal law enforcement officers who are working in an official capacity, have full arrest powers, wear/carry a badge (ordinarily), carry a firearm (ordinarily), and are paid from governmental funds set aside specifically for payment of sworn law enforcement representatives.

Based on historical reporting trends, similar response rates are expected in future law enforcement officer death/assault collections; however, the FBI LEOKA Program actively liaisons with national law enforcement agencies to encourage participation in law enforcement officer death/assault data collections. Response rates are expected to increase for agencies to report those law enforcement officers killed or assaulted with increased marketing of the FBI LEOKA Program’s services and resources and by refreshing the LEOKA Officer Safety Awareness Training with the use of an updated curriculum.

For this collection, there is an average of 184 respondents. The total respondent universe includes all U.S. law enforcement officers. Of those, 48 agencies completed Form

1-701a and 136 agencies completed Form 1-701.

As the LEOKA death/assault data collection is intended to collect all law enforcement officers deaths/assaults from law enforcement agencies in the U.S., sampling methodologies are not used. The FBI LEOKA Program does not apply estimation procedures in the LEOKA death/assault data collection. The law enforcement agencies that do not send in officer deaths/assaults are not estimated to compensate for the missing jurisdictions. The FBI LEOKA Program presents the actual number of officers killed and assaulted in the LEOKA publication.

Within days of a law enforcement officer being killed in the line of duty, the FBI LEOKA Program receives an Electronic Communication (EC) containing details of the officer’s death from the appropriate FBI field office via Sentinel. Sentinel is an internal communication system which is the next generation information and case management system for the FBI. Sentinel has moved the FBI from a primarily paper-based reporting system to an electronic recordkeeping system. Sentinel has significantly improved how the FBI manages its investigative, intelligence, and administrative information workflow by providing users a new way to enter, review, approve, and research case information.

Upon receipt of a death notification, the FBI LEOKA Program’s staff directs an EC via Sentinel to the assigned special agent at the FBI field office. A soft copy of Form 1-701 or Form 1-701a is attached in Sentinel to be utilized by the special agent to obtain additional details concerning the circumstances surrounding the incident. A 30-day deadline is given to the special agent for return of the completed form to the FBI LEOKA Program. Within the EC, the special agent is directed to provide the appropriate form to the victim officer’s agency for completion. The victim officer’s agency is to return the completed form to the FBI field office. After a review by the special agent for accuracy, the completed form is forwarded to the FBI LEOKA Program via Sentinel, email, facsimile, or hard copy mail. Completed forms received via Sentinel by the FBI LEOKA Program are similar to an email attachment. The completed form is printed by the LEOKA staff and the data is manually entered into the LEOKA database.

Law enforcement agencies participating in the FBI UCR Program submit monthly aggregate totals of line-of-duty death and assault data to the FBI UCR Program. Form 1-705 is utilized by law enforcement agencies to report this data to the FBI UCR Program. Years ago, the participating FBI UCR Program agencies’ submissions were an important and valid source of cross checking line-of-duty deaths to ascertain all law enforcement officer deaths were accounted for in the LEOKA Program. With the advancement and implementation of technology in the last several years, the FBI LEOKA Program does not utilize the monthly officer death data submitted by the law enforcement agencies for the purpose of officer death validation. The cross checking currently used is more to ascertain that the FBI UCR Program has received the officer’s death on the monthly submission to the FBI UCR Program. Presently, the FBI UCR Program is in the process of obtaining a new database collection system and is planning to incorporate the cross checking of officer deaths between the FBI UCR Program and the FBI LEOKA Program. Since future enhancements to the “new” UCR Program system may eliminate this manual step, the FBI UCR Program is contemplating removing the “Officers Killed” section from Form 1-705.

When the FBI UCR Program receives information on monthly submissions from participating agencies of an officer assault with injury from a firearm or knife/other cutting instrument, notification of the officer assault is provided to the FBI LEOKA Program. The LEOKA Program’s staff sends an email with a soft copy of Form 1-701 to the state UCR Program or individual law enforcement agency requesting the completion of the form for the victim officer’s assault. The agency is given a 45-day deadline to return Form 1-701 to the FBI LEOKA Program. The completed report is received from the victim officer’s agency via email, facsimile, or hard copy. Upon receipt of the completed Form 1-701, the data is manually entered into the LEOKA database. Since the assaulted officer survived the incident, the data collected is invaluable for the FBI LEOKA Program’s training instructors and is consistently incorporated into the “Officer Safety Awareness Training” given to law enforcement agencies nationwide. A release of the detailed assault with injury data is presently in the planning stages and expected to be published in the Fall of 2014.

Response rates are maximized through liaison with FBI field offices and law enforcement agencies. Communications encouraging data submissions occur frequently because of the relationship between FBI LEOKA staff, FBI field offices, and law enforcement agencies. FBI LEOKA staff have a strong understanding of contextual challenges agencies face in reporting valid and reliable data and regularly work to overcome nonresponse issues when such challenges occur. The mission of the FBI LEOKA Program is to acquire LEOKA data, establish guidelines for the collection of such data, and publish LEOKA data. Although the FBI makes every effort through its editing procedures, training practices, and correspondence to ensure the validity of the data it receives, the accuracy of the statistics depends primarily on the adherence of each contributor to the established standards of reporting. The FBI is working to help law enforcement agencies participate in the LEOKA data collection with the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division’s UCR Redevelopment Project (UCRRP). The UCRRP will manage the acquisition, development, and integration of a new information systems solution which affects UCR participating local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies. The UCRRP's goal is to improve UCR efficiency, usability, and maintainability while increasing the value to users of UCR products. The UCRRP will reduce, to the point of elimination, the exchange of printed materials between submitting agencies and the FBI and replace those with electronic submissions. The FBI UCR Program has begun the process of minimizing the exchange of paper for crime reporting purposes. In July 2013, the FBI UCR Program began moving submitting agencies away from paper submissions. After a period of transition, the expectation is to have all data interfaces electronically managed. The goal is to have minimal paper burden on the public. The UCRRP is developing a LEOKA wizard utility/tool as an option for paperless submissions.

Previously, Form 1-701, Analysis of Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, consisted of eight pages of data with three to eight of these pages being utilized depending upon the circumstances of the death or assault. In February 2004, it was agreed upon that the form be revised to better meet the needs and purpose of the LEOKA Program. Concerned with the rapid rise in the number of officers being accidentally killed, the LEOKA Program Coordinator met with members of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Highway Safety Committee and Law Enforcement Stops and Safety (LESS) Subcommittee. The focus of the meeting was law enforcement safety issues. The LEOKA Program's statistical data and the most current annual LEOKA publication were thoroughly examined and assessed regarding the rise in accidental deaths. Due to the limited information captured, the committees requested Form 1-701 be redesigned to capture additional information regarding accidental and felonious deaths and assaults. The committees also offered their resources and expertise in assisting the FBI with this project.

In the spring of 2004, management of the FBI CJIS Division approved the request as submitted by the IACP committees. Input was solicited from the IACP members of the Highway Safety Committee and the LESS Subcommittee, and the following agencies submitted suggestions and recommendations regarding the redesign of Form 1-701: National Sheriffs’ Association; New Hampshire Department of Public Safety; California Highway Patrol; New York State Police; Florida Highway Patrol; Missouri Highway Patrol; Alabama Department of Public Safety; Colorado State Patrol; North Carolina State Highway Patrol; Pennsylvania State Police, Washington State Patrol; Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; other members of the IACP; and various advocacy groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.

After the initial solicitation for suggestions, a LEOKA Redesign Team was formed at the FBI CJIS Division. The redesign team consisted of five persons from the Crime Statistics Management Unit and the Crime Analysis, Research, and Development Unit. Numerous outside entities were also consulted throughout the redesign process, and they are as follows: Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; American Society of Criminology; and subject matter experts from various universities throughout the U.S.

Two Forms, one for officers accidentally killed (Form 1-701a) and one for officers feloniously killed and officers assaulted and injured with a firearm or knife/other cutting instrument (Form 1-701), were created by the LEOKA Redesign Team.

In May 2008, the new forms were field tested by law enforcement agencies to assess any problems they may have understanding and completing the new forms. Cases were preselected by the redesign team and assigned to the agencies in order to ensure a healthy mixture of incident types. Each agency was assigned one felonious and one accidental form to complete. Agencies in Arizona, California, New Jersey, Colorado, Florida, and Ohio participated in the field tests. None of these agencies experienced major problems completing the forms, and the time needed to complete either the accidental or felonious/assault forms is averaging one hour or less for each.

In August 2009, the Information Collection Review package was sent to the Forms Desk for the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) approval as a revision of a currently approved collection. In March 2010, OMB approved the collection as 1-701 Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted Program; Analysis of Officers Feloniously Killed and Assaulted and 1-701a Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted Program; Analysis of Officers Accidentally Killed.

Since the implementation of these approved LEOKA forms, the utility of the information collected on these forms has improved and has provided more detailed data on LEOKA incidents, thus further advancing law enforcement officer training and survival in the line of duty. As the FBI refreshes the LEOKA Officer Safety Awareness Training with the use of an updated curriculum and increased marketing of the LEOKA Program’s services and resources, change and redevelopment are imminent.

With updated technology comes advancement through the LEOKA wizard utility/tool. As these changes transpire, the LEOKA staff will identify and document problematic areas encountered on the forms. As the forms will remain as is for this renewal, other than providing instructions, changes in the future are being foreseen and will be field tested before the next renewal of the LEOKA forms.