2018 1110-0048 SUPPORTING STATEMENT A-Final

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

1110-0048

Cargo Theft Incident Report

1. Justification

1. Necessity of Information Collection

Under the authority of Public Law 109-177 (H.R. 3199), March 9, 2006, USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005, mandated the Attorney General to “take the steps necessary to ensure reports of cargo theft collected by federal, state, and local officials are reflected as a separate category in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) System.”

The Cargo Theft Incident Report provides the FBI UCR Program with information about each cargo theft to include at least one of 13 offense classifications; location of the cargo theft; type of weapon used (if any); monetary value and a description of the property stolen, whether the property is recovered; victim type; as well as the age, sex, race, and ethnicity demographics of the associated offender(s) and arrestee(s).

2. Needs and Uses

The FBI UCR Program serves as the national clearinghouse for the collection and dissemination of cargo theft crime data. These data were mandated for collection in an effort to capture the essence of the national cargo theft crime problem and its negative impact on the economy and national security of the United States (U.S.). Quality cargo theft data is a valuable resource to LEAs, the academic community, government entities, the general public, and the media to identify potential cases of organized crime, drug trafficking, or findings of terrorism to accurately depict the nation’s cargo theft losses. Examples of agencies’ uses are:

1. The FBI serves as the national clearinghouse for storage of all cargo theft statistics; therefore, the data is available upon request to any requester. From 2015-2017, the FBI UCR Program received 14 requests for cargo theft data.

2. Law enforcement uses UCR data for administration, operation, management, and to determine effectiveness and placement of task forces.

3. Annual FBI UCR Program 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 three years of the FBI UCR Program’s cargo theft data within the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). These files contain cargo theft data from 2013-2015 and provides detailed incident information on cargo theft incidents reported to the police and can be downloaded from the ICPSR website.

4. The FBI UCR Program’s Crime Data Explorer web application also provides nationwide cargo theft crime data to users around the country.

The UCR Program has only published cargo theft data for the last four years. The FBI will begin a more in-depth analysis of the data following the 2017 publication, as a full five years of data will be available. At the conclusion of the five-year cycle, the FBI will establish a trend. If the trend shows the current cargo theft collection practices need to be modified, the Program will collaborate with external cargo theft stakeholders to develop new collection procedures.

While the number of participating agencies and cargo theft incidents reported has increased each year, much of the incident data was removed from the cargo theft publication tables because of the state UCR program’s inability to verify the data. The FBI UCR Program developed and implemented a database to collect cargo theft data, provided technical specification options for collection, and continues to offer training. However, until more states incorporate the cargo theft collection into their record systems or establish more accurate data quality measures, the UCR Program will be unable to provide an accurate measure of the national cargo theft problem.

3. Use of Information Technology

All FBI UCR Program participants submit their crime data electronically. The FBI provides three different options for state UCR program and individual LEA participants to submit cargo theft data: Extensible Markup Language (XML), Flat File Data specification, and the FBI-provided Microsoft Excel Summary Workbook.

XML interface specification complies with the National Information Exchange Model and Logical Entity Exchange Specifications, which are both data standards for information exchange used by law enforcement. The Flat File Data Specification is submitted as a standard American Standard Code for Information Interchange text file. Finally, the FBI–provided Microsoft Excel Summary Workbook allows agencies to submit data via an Excel Workbook which is translated into a standard format for processing of data into the UCR Technical Refresh System. These electronic submissions are currently received from state UCR programs and individual LEAs via e-mail at <[email protected]>.

UCR Program crime data collection begins at the local agency level when 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 LEAs throughout their state, as well as the FBI 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 Public Law 109-177 (H.R. 3199), enacted March 9, 2006 aptly titled USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2015. This law mandated the FBI to establish a cargo theft data collection within the UCR system. Although cargo theft data is published from various sources, the FBI UCR Program is the only federal agency mandated by law with collecting cargo theft data.

5. Minimizing Burden on Small Businesses

This information will have no significant impact on small businesses. The law enforcement community requested the forms be collected on a monthly basis since police records are run on a calendar month; however, the FBI minimizes the 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 which minimize their burden.

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 which are reported by participating FBI UCR Program contributors. Although monthly reports are preferred, the FBI UCR Program allows agencies to submit data quarterly, twice a year, and even once a year. Upon approval by the FBI UCR Program, agencies can submit data at intervals which minimize their burden.

Public Law 109-177 (H.R. 3199), USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005, mandates the FBI UCR Program to collect cargo theft data. If the FBI were to discontinue the collection of this data, the FBI UCR Program would be out of compliance with this law. To help reduce the burden, the FBI UCR Program has provided agencies with electronic data submission methods.

LEAs use FBI UCR Program data to track crime, task force placement, staffing levels and officer placement. The FBI 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, equipment, or funding.

7. Special Circumstances

While some agencies submit data on a quarterly, biannual, or annual basis, most data are collected/received from FBI UCR Program participants on a monthly basis. Monthly reports/submissions should be received at the FBI by the seventh day of each month. Annual deadlines are designated to collect/assess receipt of monthly submissions. Participation in the national UCR Program is voluntary.

8. Public Comments and Consultations

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

9. Provision of Payments or Gifts to Respondents

The FBI 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 which may reveal the identity of an individual. The data obtained is considered to be in the public domain.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

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

12. Estimate of Respondent’s Burden

The estimated burden for the Cargo Theft Data Collection varies based upon the volume of cargo theft crimes. According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines, the FBI UCR Program conducted an “hour burden” study with a sample of nine potential data contributors and concluded the average time needed to complete the Cargo Theft Incident report is five minutes. For Summary Reporting System (SRS) users, it takes approximately forty-five (days) to update state record management systems (RMS). System update burdens are a one-time burden for the agencies to make information system adjustments. The FBI UCR Program has 11,294 potential SRS LEAs who could report cargo theft data. However, 6,766 agencies have not updated their system to capture this data. The UCR Program has 4,528 SRS LEAs submitting cargo theft data on a monthly basis which calculates to 2,273 total burden hours.

Number of respondents: 4,528

Number of non-respondents: 2,019

Frequency of responses: monthly

Total annual responses: 27,271

Minutes per response to complete form: 5

One time burden to modify information systems: 45 days

Annual hour burden to complete form: 2,273 hours

Annual hour burden to modify system over 3 year span: 811,920

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: 814,493

	SRS
Number of months submitted	Number of Agencies	Number of Responses	5 min. Burden	Totals
1 month	46	46	230
2 months	33	66	330
3 months	66	198	990
4 months	22	88	440
5 months	27	135	675
6 months	31	186	930
7 months	37	259	1,295
8 months	34	272	1,360
9 months	46	414	2,070
10 months	108	1,080	5,400
11 months	181	1,991	9,955
12 months	1,878	22,536	112,680
Non-responsive				2,019
Total Agencies				4,528
Annual Responses				27,271
Form Completion Hr Burden			136,355 minutes	2,273 hours
# of Agencies Within States Who Have Not Programmed CT				6,766
System Modification Hr Burden Over 3 Years				811,920 hours

The FBI UCR Program frequently has operational and administrative questions for the state UCR program managers and local LEAs. In order for the FBI to conduct this outreach with a larger universe of contributors, the FBI UCR Program is including an 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. The FBI UCR Program disseminates the electronic version of the Cargo Theft Incident Report free of charge via the Microsoft Excel Workbook Tool.

Respondents may incur capital or start-up costs associated with this information collection, although it is difficult to obtain the costs to agency RMS. Vendors do not divulge costs due to the fact that vendors charge differently from agency to agency and many costs are built into the vendor’s contracts. Depending on these contracts, changes mandated by law are included within the original contract with no 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

According to the cost module provided by the FBI CJIS Division, Resource Management Section, Fee Programs Unit, the following are projections based upon prior collection activity, as well as activities anticipated over the next three years for both the 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 more SRS agencies programming cargo theft, as well as including the burden estimate for state UCR program manager and local LEA outreach. This adjustment from 3,152 to 4,528 is an increase of 1,436.

16. Anticipated Publication Plan and Schedule

Published data are derived from data submissions furnished to the FBI 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-Early-March, following year

Deadline to submit data End of March

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

year)

Publication data September, following year/CIUS

17. Display of Expiration Date

All information collected under this clearance will display the Clearance Number and Expiration Date on the Cargo Theft Incident Report.

18. Exception to the Certification Statement

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