1110-0001_Part B

B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods.

1. The potential respondent universe of the Return A and Supplement to Return A forms OMB No. 1110-0001, includes all United States (U.S.) law enforcement agencies (LEAs) submitting their crime statistics data via the Summary Reporting System (SRS). During 2014, 11,373 LEAs voluntarily participated in the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. The LEAs consist of local, county, state, tribal, and federal agencies that correlate to all population group sizes and have many diverse attributes. These agencies include a mix of population density and degrees of urbanization; various compositions of population particularly youth concentration; population mobility with respect to residents’ mobility, commuting patterns, and transient factors; different economic conditions including median income, poverty level, and job availability; areas with different modes of transportation and highway systems; different cultural factors and educational, recreational, and religious characteristics; family conditions with respect to divorce and family cohesiveness; climate; effective strength of law enforcement; policies of other components of the criminal justice system; citizens’ attitudes toward crime; and crime reporting practices of the citizenry. See chart below of participating agencies.

	Population Group	Number of Agencies	Population Covered
Cities	Group I (250,000 inhabitants and more)	63	50,205,986
	Group II (100,000 to 249,999 inhabitants)	153	22,673,683
	Group III (50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants)	342	23,436,937
	Group IV (25,000 to 49,999 inhabitants)	579	20,011,002
	Group V (10,000 to 24,999 inhabitants)	1,276	20,343,926
	Group VI (Less than 10,000 inhabitants)1,2	6,012	16,587,892
Counties	Group VIII (Nonmetropolitan County)2	1,393	54,743,496
	Group IX (Metropolitan County)2	1,555	15,492,906
	Total	11,373	223,495,828

¹ Includes universities and colleges to which no population is attributed.

² Includes state police to which no population is attributed.

Out of the 11,373 agencies that voluntarily report data to the FBI UCR Program via the SRS, approximately 9,107 submit twelve month complete total, 857 submit between one and eleven months of data, and 1,409 agencies do not submit reports to the FBI UCR Program. See chart below.

Number of months submitted	Number of Agencies
1 month	43
2 months	38
3 months	51
4 months	49
5 months	30
6 months	48
7 months	47
8 months	49
9 months	86
10 months	111
11 months	305
12 months	9,107
Non reporting agencies	1,409
Total	11,373

Of the 11,373 participating agencies, 80 percent respond with twelve months of complete data and based on historical reporting trends, similar response rates are expected in future Return A and Supplement to Return A collections.

2. Return A and Supplement to Return A data are collected/received from state UCR Program participants on a monthly basis. The FBI’s UCR Program has established various time frames and deadlines for acquiring the monthly data. Monthly reports/submissions should be received at the FBI by the seventh day after the close of each month. Annual deadlines are also designated in order to collect/assess receipt of monthly submissions. There are times when special circumstances may cause an agency to request an extension. The FBI’s UCR Program has the authority to grant these extensions. Although the law enforcement community requested that the form be collected on a monthly basis since police records are run on a calendar month, the FBI UCR Program has agencies that submit data quarterly, twice a year, and even once a year. Upon approval, the FBI UCR Program agencies can submit their data at intervals that minimizes the burdens to the agency.

LEAs participating in the Summary Reporting System (SRS) submit Return A and Supplement to Return A data to the FBI UCR Program via electronic files or by using the Microsoft Excel Workbook Tool which contains an electronic version of the Return A–Monthly Return of Offenses Known to the Police and Supplement to Return A–Monthly Return of Offenses Known to Police. The SRS is referred to as the “traditional” FBI UCR reporting system; it began in 1930, and has had few modifications through the years.

As the Return A and Supplement to Return A data collection is intended to collect all reported Part I offense data (murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft) and Supplement to Return A data, monetary value of property stolen and recovered, from LEAs in the U.S., sampling methodologies are not used. The FBI UCR Program does apply estimation procedures of the Return A Offenses Known to Police data and the Supplement to Return A data, monetary value of property stolen and recovered data. The LEAs that do not send in Return A data and Supplement to Return A data are estimated to compensate for the missing jurisdictions. Using well-established procedures, the FBI UCR Program estimates for missing data for agencies with partial reports and for nonreporting agencies and then aggregates these estimates to determine the number of offenses for the total U. S. Population. Crime in the United States (CIUS) present these approximations in Tables 1-7. The Program estimates offenses that occur within each of three areas: Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), cities outside MSAs, and nonmetropolitan counties. The national Program computes estimates by using the known crime figures of similar areas within a state and assigning the same proportion of crime volumes to nonreporting agencies or agencies with missing data. The estimation process considers the following: population size of agency; type of jurisdiction, e.g., police department versus sheriff’s office; and geographic location. With the development of the new Uniform Crime Reporting Redevelopment Project (UCRRP), the possibility of more complex estimation procedures will be reviewed by the UCR survey statistician, UCR Advisory Policy Board (APB) Subcommittee members, and with the involvement of the Office of Management and Budget statisticians.

The FBI relies on the integrity of data contributors reporting data, however, Quality Assurance Reviews are conducted by the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Audit Unit on a triennial basis. The results of the audits are not used to adjust crime data, but are used to educate reporting agencies on compliance with national UCR guidelines.

3. Response rates are maximized through liaison with state UCR programs. Communications encouraging data submissions occur frequently because of the relationship between the FBI UCR Program staff and LEAs. FBI UCR 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 UCR Program is to acquire Return A and Supplement to Return A data, establish guidelines for the collection of such data, and publish Return A and Supplement to Return A 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 UCR Program actively liaisons with the state UCR Programs and the national LEAs to encourage participation in the Return A and Supplement to Return A data collections. To encourage the submission of data, a listing of missing reports are sent to state UCR Programs and individual LEAs twice a year and then follow up contact is also made to those agencies to further encourage the submission of missing data. FBI UCR Program staff make every effort to assist agencies in submitting 12 months complete data.

Currently, 80 percent of the FBI UCR Program agencies submitting data via the SRS, report 12 months of complete Return A and Supplement to Return A data to the FBI. The FBI is working to help the absent 20 percent of LEAs to submit Return A and Supplement to Return A data with the FBI CJIS Division’s UCRRP, which will manage the acquisition, development, and integration of a new information systems solution which affects UCR participating local, state, tribal, and federal LEAs. The UCRRP's goal is to improve UCR efficiency, usability, and maintainability while increasing the value to users of UCR products. The UCRRP reduced the exchange of printed materials between submitting agencies. The FBI began accepting data by electronic means on July 1, 2014. The UCRRP has developed numerous options for accepting electronic submissions: Extensible Markup Language, Flat File Formats, and an FBI provided Microsoft Excel Workbook and Tally Book.

Training also encourages participation in the FBI’s UCR Program. The FBI has trainers who provide on-site training for any LEA that participates in the FBI UCR Program. The trainers furnish introductory, intermediate, or advanced courses in data collection procedures and guidelines. In addition, the trainers are available by telephone or e-mail to provide LEAs with answers to specific questions about classification, scoring and other questions regarding the FBI UCR Program.

Providing vital links between local law enforcement and the FBI in the conduct of the UCR Program are the Criminal Justice Information Systems Committees of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA). The IACP, as it has since the Program began, represents the thousands of police departments nationwide. The NSA encourages sheriffs throughout the country to participate fully in the Program. Both committees serve in advisory capacities concerning the UCR Program’s operation. The Association of State Uniform Crime Reporting Programs (ASUCRP) focuses on UCR issues within individual state law enforcement associations and also promotes interest in the FBI UCR Program. These organizations foster widespread and responsible use of uniform crime statistics and lend assistance to data contributors when needed.

4. The FBI has conducted the monthly Return A and Supplement to Return A information collection since the 1930’s with high rates of response and has specific plans to further improve participation; proposed initiatives are described in Part B #3. There have not been any changes to the current Return A and Supplement to Return A forms that would need to be tested. No comments or suggestions of problems with the form have been reported through the CJIS Advisory Board (APB) Working Groups, UCR Subcommittee, CJIS APB, or the ASUCRP which meet frequently throughout each year and are dedicated to improving the collection, use, and utility of crime data as reported through the FBI UCR Program and all state and local crime reporting programs.

5. Lisa A. Vincent

Acting Law Enforcement Support Section Chief

[email protected]

304-625-3690

Samuel Berhanu

Crime Statistics Management Unit Chief

[email protected]

304-625-4840

Loretta A. Simmons

Management and Program Analyst

[email protected]

304-625-3535

Kristi L. Donahue

Management and Program Analyst

[email protected]

304-625-2972