1110-0008 Supporting Statement A_Final

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

1110-0008

Monthly Return of Arson Offenses Known to Law Enforcement

1. 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 Congressional Directive of 1979, and the Anti-Arson Act 1982, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was designated by the Attorney General to acquire, collect, classify, and preserve national data on arson as a Part I crime in the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.

Form 1-725, Monthly Return of Arson Offenses Known to Law Enforcement, provides for the national UCR Program the number of arson offenses reported monthly by law enforcement, the number of unfounded arson offenses, the total number of arson offenses cleared by arrest or exceptional means, and clearances for persons under the age of 18 regarding structural property, whether it be uninhabited, abandoned, or normally not in use; mobile property, as motor vehicles, trailers, airplanes, or boats; or other types of property, such as crops, timber, or signs. This collection also provides an estimated value of property damage for each arson reported.

This information collection is necessary for the FBI to maintain a database and serve as the national clearing house for the collection and dissemination of arson offenses and to ensure publication in Preliminary Semiannual Report and Crime in the United States (CIUS).

2. Needs and Uses

The Microsoft Excel Summary Workbook and the Arson Flat File Data Specification are needed to provide law enforcement agencies (LEAs) a mechanism to report Part I arson offense data to the FBI UCR Program. The UCR Program’s arson data collection are used in many ways and serves many purposes. These statistics provide law enforcement with data for use in budget formulation, planning, resource allocation for arson investigators, assessment of police operations, etc., to help address the crime problem at various levels. Chambers of commerce and tourism agencies examine these data to see how they impact the particular geographic jurisdictions they represent. Criminal justice researchers study the nature, cause, and movement of arsons over time. Legislators draft anti-crime measures using the research findings of the UCR Program’s arson data. Examples of other agencies’ uses are:

1. The FBI serves as the national clearing house for storage of all arson statistics; therefore, these data are available upon request to any requester.

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

3. Annual UCR Program’s data are provided to the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). This central repository serves as a single facility from which colleges/universities can obtain social science data. The ICPSR website currently stores fourteen years of UCR Program’s arson data. These data files contain monthly data on the number of arson offenses reported to law enforcement, as well as the number of offenses cleared by arrest or exceptional means.

3. Use of Information Technology

All FBI UCR Program participants submit their crime data electronically. The FBI provides three different electronic options for UCR Program participants to submit arson data: Extensible Markup Language (XML), Flat File Data Specification and the FBI– Provided Microsoft Excel Summary Workbook.

The XML interface specification complies with the National information Exchange Model (NEIM) and Logical Entity Exchange Specifications (LEXS), which are both data standards for information exchange. The Flat File Data Specification are submitted as a standard ASCII text file. Finally, the FBI–Provided Microsoft Excel Summary Workbook allows agencies to submit data via an Excel Workbook that is translated into a standard format for processing the data into the new UCR System. These electronic submissions are currently received from state UCR programs and individual law enforcement agencies via e-mail at <[email protected]>.

UCR Program crime data collection begins at the local agency level when the law enforcement officers submit administrative and operational data to their record management personnel from hardcopy or electronic incident reports. The local agency record managers then compile the crime data and submit it to their state UCR programs. Many state UCR programs have a centralized repository and have established electronic communications with the LEAs throughout their state, as well as the national UCR Program. This link allows for information technology interaction within the required electronic data submission formats.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

This information collection was authorized in direct response to the enactment of Title 28, Section 534, Acquisition, and Exchange of Identification Records; Appointment of Officials, June 11, 1930, a congressional directive in 1979, and the Anti-Arson Act of 1982.

Another known entity that collects fire data, which includes arson, is the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA). USFA publishes “Fire in the United States”, which receives its data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System, National Fire Protection Association, National Center for Health Statistics, and state fire marshals’ offices. This report provides a statistical overview of fires in the United States and are designed to equip the fire service and others with information that motivates corrective action, sets priorities, targets specific fire programs, serves as a model for state and local analysis of fire data, and provides a baseline for evaluating programs.

The FBI’s arson data are critical for obtaining a count of those arsons considered to have been willfully or maliciously set. The FBI UCR Program has successfully collected and published arson data since 1979.

5. Minimizing Burden on Small Businesses

This information will have no significant impact on small businesses. The law enforcement community requested that the forms be collected on a monthly basis since police records are run on a calendar month, however, the FBI minimizes burden on small LEAs by allowing them to submit quarterly, twice a year, or once a year. Although monthly is recommended, upon approval by the FBI UCR Program, agencies can submit data at intervals that minimizes the burdens of the agency.

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 monthly statistics 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.

Although monthly reports are preferred, the FBI UCR Program has agencies submitting data quarterly, twice a year, and even once a year. Upon approval by the FBI UCR Program, agencies can submit data at intervals that minimizes the burdens to the agency.

LEAs use UCR Program data to track crime, task force placement, staffing levels, and officer placement. The UCR Program’s data are used for administration, operation, management, and to determine effectiveness of task forces. Agencies will justify staffing levels and officer counts compared to other LEAs in order to receive additional staffing levels or equipment. Some agencies use other agencies’ crime statistics and staffing levels to justify their own crime statistics and staffing levels in order to obtain funding.

With the increasing demand for timelier data, the FBI UCR Program has established a task force comprised of the Association of State Uniform Crime Reporting Program (ASUCRP) representatives and the FBI CJIS Division’s Crime Statistics Management Unit. The task force convened to discuss risks, issues, and options that are currently available for reporting timely data and will be providing recommendations for receiving timelier crime data in the near future.

7. Special Circumstances

All data are collected/received from the FBI UCR Program participants on a monthly basis. Monthly reports/submissions should be received at the FBI by the seventh day after the close of each month. Annual deadlines are 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. Participation in the national 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 of gift to respondents.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality

The FBI UCR Program does not assure confidentiality. However, 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.

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: 9,623 Summary Reporting System (SRS) respondents

Number of non-respondents: 1,685/483-arson only

Frequency of responses: Monthly

Total annual responses: 111,222

Minutes per response: 9

Annual hour burden: 16,683 hours

State Program and Local LEA Outreach:

Number of respondents: 100

Frequency of responses: Varies

Minutes per response: 180

Annual hour burden: 300 hours

Total Annual Burden: 16,983 hours

	SRS
Number of months submitted	Number of Agencies	Number of Responses	9 Minute Burden	Totals
1 month	51	51	459
2 months	57	114	1,026
3 months	69	207	1,863
4 months	58	232	2,088
5 months	52	260	2,340
6 months	59	354	3,186
7 months	70	490	4,410
8 months	71	568	5,112
9 months	77	693	6,237
10 months	110	1,100	9,900
11 months	235	2,585	23,265
12 months	8,714	104,568	941,112
Non-responsive				1,685–all 483–arson
Total Agencies	9,623			9,623
Annual Responses		111,222		111,222
Form Completion Hr Burden			1,000,998 minutes	16,683 hours

The FBI UCR Program frequently has operational and administrative questions for the state program managers and local LEAs. In order for the FBI to conduct this outreach with a larger universe of contributors, the UCR Program is including additional 300 annual burden hours to this information collection request.

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 collection, respondents are not expected to incur any capital, start-up, or system maintenance costs associated with this information collection. Costs to agency Records Management Systems 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 may be included within the original contract with no other additional costs. However, an estimate has been projected that agencies pay a $107,000 maintenance fee every year for system maintenance costs.

14. Cost to Federal Government

The following is a cost module provided by the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division, Resource Management Section, Fee Programs Unit, for the entire FBI UCR Program. These are projections based upon prior collection activity, as well as activities anticipated over the next three years for both the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and SRS. The cost module does not separate the costs between the two methods of collecting UCR data.

Data Collection and Processing Costs

Administrative $ 51,366.58

Application for Resources Support $ 33,313.62

Assessments/Analysis – External Customers $ 50,520.46

Budget Activities, Strategic Planning & Program

Control $ 245,155.22

Communication/Reporting $ 132,441.55

Curriculum Design – External Customers $ 98,745.93

Customer Service Group $ 8,610.83

Customer Service Support $ 52,773.95

Data Entry $ 18,476.56

Development, Test, and Integration $ 279,530.52

Editing $ 285,589.82

Human Resource Management $ 172,388.58

Liaison, Correspondence, Data Requests $ 694,243.64

Life Cycle Records Management $ 23,322.74

Manage Congressional Correspondence $ 15,548.49

Manage Freedom of Information Act Requests $ 15,548.49

Marketing $ 23,214.69

Operational Assistance $ 60,685.07

Operations Research and Analysis $ 4,589.31

Perform Strategic Planning $ 28,704.05

Perform Unit Budget Activities $ 13,667.22

Policy, Development, and Program Planning $ 290,486.20

Project and Program Management $ 213,406.96

Provide Technical, Statistical, Mathematical Assistance/

Training $ 3,511.71

Provide Training Instruction – External Customers $ 223,899.58

Request for Information $ 8,748.18

Research and Analysis $ 224,431.85

SENTINEL Management $ 23,322.74

Software Maintenance $ 37,137.98

Source Selection Support $ 6,833.61

Special Interest Research $ 1,529.77

Special Studies Using UCR Data $ 279,492.14

Training/Leadership Development $ 4,680.04

UCR Automation/Development $ 222,424.57

UCR Data Analysis $ 697,374.36

UCR Data Collection $ 235.854.05

UCR Publications/Reports $ 424,671.11

Writing Services/Support $ 206,237.60

Total Cost to Federal Government $ 5,412.479.77

15. Reason for Change in Burden

There will be an increase in burden for the individual respondents as a result of including a burden estimate for state program manager and local LEA outreach; however, the overall annual burden hours have decreased. This adjustment, from 20,866 to 16,983 is a decrease of 3,883. The decrease in burden is due to SRS agencies transitioning to NIBRS.

16. Anticipated Publication Plan and Schedule

Published data are derived from data submissions furnished to the FBI UCR Program from local, county, state, tribal, and federal LEAs throughout the country. Data will be published on an annual basis.

Request missing data from agencies February-March, following year

Deadline to submit data End of March

Data Processing/Analysis July (current year)-April (following year)

Publication data September, following year

17. Display of Expiration Date

All information collected under this clearance will display the OMB Clearance Number and Expiration Date on the Microsoft Excel Summary Workbook.

18. Exception to the Certification Statement

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