Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor
OMB No. 1121 - 0259
JUSTIFICATION
1. Necessity of Information: On May 14, 2001, the United States Congress passed F1.R.802, the “Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor Act,” which was later signed into law on May 30, 2001. The law states, “After September 1, 2001, the President may award, and present in the name of Congress, a Medal of Valor of appropriate design, with ribbons and appurtenances, to a public safety officer who is cited by the Attorney General, upon the recommendation of the Medal of Valor Review Board, for extraordinary valor above and beyond the call of duty. The Public Safety Medal of Valor shall be the highest national award for valor by a public safety officer.” Without the collection of this data, public safety officers laying their lives on the line to protect the lives of others may go unrecognized. It is important that this information is collected to acknowledge these brave men and women for their altruistic acts of valor.
Each year, the application submission period opens on or about May 31 and closes on July 31, to provide applicants a full two months to apply. Following the close of the application submission period, the Board Members are accorded one month to conduct their initial/individual reviews of each of the applications and any supporting documents before the full Board convenes to deliberate and make its recommendations of the recipients to receive the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor (“MOV”). According to the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor Act (“Act”), “not more often than once each year, the Board shall present to the Attorney General the name or names of those it recommends as MOV recipients.”
2. Needs and Uses: The information collected on these applications will provide the basis for considering each nomination and determining which public safety officers will be recommended to receive the MOV award. This award recognizes public safety officers who have demonstrated courage and bravery above and beyond the call of duty without regard for their personal safety. A MOV Board (“Board”), as required by the legislation, is appointed by the President, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the U.S. Senate, and the Speaker and the Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Board shall select candidates as recipients of the MOV from among those applications received by the National Medal of Valor Office.
3. Use of Technology: The application process is managed through the Internet, using the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) MOV electronic application system at:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov//medalofvalor
Prospective applicants must nominate candidate(s) using this electronic paperless system.
4. Efforts to Identify Duplication: These applications will be used to nominate public safety officers solely for this award. The information collected is specific for this program.
5. Impact on Small Business: The information collected is only requested from federal, state, local, and tribal public safety agencies. There is no impact on small businesses or other entities as they are not eligible to apply.
6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection: If this collection is not conducted, the requirements of the Act would not be satisfied, and public safety officers who have risked their lives may go unrecognized for their exceptional valor, extraordinary decisiveness, presence of mind, and unusual swiftness of action, regardless of their own personal safety, in the attempt to save or protect human life.
7. Special Circumstances Influencing Collection:
This application/nomination is voluntary. Information is collected only if an agency decides to nominate one or more of its public safety officers for exceptional acts of bravery. A separate application must be submitted for each public safety officer, and for each incident of bravery to be considered.
Applications/nominations will be used only for the recognition of acts of valor accomplished during a given valor period. Each valor period runs from June 1 through the following May 31.
The online MOV application/nomination is accessible via the MOV website, and is the only avenue for application submission.
This collection is not part of a statistical survey.
This collection does not require the use of statistical data.
According to the Act, the MOV Board shall not disclose any information that may compromise an ongoing law enforcement investigation or is otherwise required by law to be kept confidential.
The submission of supplemental supporting material is provided manually, and is voluntary.
The collection does not request proprietary information.
8. Federal Register Publication and Consultation: OJP will solicit public comments on the data collection per Office of Management and Budget (OMB) specifications. The 60-day and 30-day Federal Register Notices has been published to inform and solicit comments from the public. OJP will address responses to the notice as they become available. If comments are pertinent, they will be incorporated into the online application.
9. Payment or Gifts to Respondents: Respondents nominating a public safety officer will not be compensated for this collection. However, this application/nomination will be used to recommend one or more public safety officer(s) for recognition; therefore, an MOV Decoration Set would be presented to the nominee(s) that the Board selects to recommend to, and who are ultimately cited by the U.S. Attorney General.
10. Assurance of Confidentiality: The Board shall not disclose any information that may compromise an ongoing law enforcement investigation or is otherwise required by law to be kept confidential. OJP is compliant with 28CFR22, which protects confidentiality of identifiable and statistical information and is committed to keeping a system of records that is consistent with the regulations of the Privacy Act.
11. Justification for Sensitive Questions: This application/nomination does not contain any questions of a sensitive nature.
12. Estimate of the Hour Burden: During the 2014-2015 Medal of Valor application submission period, there were a total of 107 applications/nominations received. The process is estimated to take approximately 25 minutes to gather the required information and complete the online form.
107 x 25 minutes = 2,675 minutes/60 = 44.58 hours.
The projected hours per response are based upon estimates provided by previous collections. This estimate includes reviewing the fields of required and optional information and entering the data into each relevant field.
13. Estimate of the Total Annual Cost Burden: There are no direct costs to the applicants other than the time taken to complete and submit the voluntary online application. Applicants are not requested to create and maintain an independent data collection or reporting system, nor are they requested to travel. Consequently, the applicants incur no additional costs.
14. Estimates of Annualized Cost to the Federal Government: This estimate does not factor in the additional costs associated with the operation of this program outside of the initial application review activities of the Designated Federal Officer. The estimated annualized cost to the federal government for a GS-0301-13/8 to conduct the basic minimum review, compile, and process the 107 applications at 10 minutes per application is projected as follows:
107 applications/nominations x 10 mins = 1,070 minutes/60 min per hour = 17.83 hours.
GS-13/8 Program Lead/Designated Federal Officer (the general grade/step of incumbents that may fill this position)
17.83 hours x $ 72.70 (Average hourly wage of 53.85 plus 35% fringe benefit rate) = $1,296.24
Board Members
The authorized complement for the Board is 11 appointed members. These members are federal, state, and local employees; public safety practitioners; and/or private citizens. A budget is allocated as required by 42 U.S.C. § 15203 for travel, room and board, and compensation for the non-governmental employee Board Members for time engaged in board-related activities.
15. Reason for Changes in Reporting Burden: This is an extension of a previously approved information collection.
16. Plans for Publication: OJP anticipates the selection of MOV recipients within 90-120 days following the submission to the U.S. Attorney General of the Board recommendations. The issuance of a press release, announcements, and publication in newsletters or local media journals are contingent upon the identification of a date for the MOV ceremony and might take several months longer. Annually, the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance engages in a range of outreach efforts (e.g., email blasts, social media marketing, direct mailings) to inform public safety agencies of the opportunity to submit nominations for the MOV, the highest national award for valor by a public safety officer. The U.S. President or Vice President ultimately awards the MOV to the public safety officers who have been cited by the Attorney General (by statute) after being recommended by the MOV Board.
Nominations are accepted for acts of valor that occurred between June 1 and May 31 of the following year, by completing an online application at: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov//medalofvalor. The deadline for receipt of nominations is July 31.
17. Expiration Approval Date: The OMB Number and Expiration Date are displayed on the application form.
18. Exceptions to the Certification Statement: OJP does not request an exception to the certification of this information collection.
COLLECTION OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS
Statistical methods will not be used in this information collection.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | Public Safety Officers Medal of Valor |
| Author | Presslem |
| Last Modified By | Lynn Murray |
| File Modified | 2016-01-13 |
| File Created | 2016-01-13 |