DICRA Supporting Statement FINAL

SUPPORTING STATEMENT
Death in Custody Reporting Act
August 2018

A. Justification
1. The Department of Justice (DOJ), Bureau of Justice Assistance will be submitting the
following information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995.
The Death in Custody Reporting Act (DCRA) requires states and federal law
enforcement agencies to report certain information to the Attorney General regarding the
death of any person occurring during interactions with law enforcement officers or while
in custody. See 34 U.S.C. § 60105(a) & (b). It further requires the Attorney General and
the Department of Justice (Department) to collect the information, establish guidelines on
how it should be reported, annually determine whether each state has complied with the
reporting requirements, and address any state’s noncompliance.
This collection is necessitated under the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013 (H.R.
1447).
2. The Bureau of Justice Assistance will collect this information from states and U.S.
territories in order to assess compliance with the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013
and provide compliance information to the Attorney General as required by law.
3. The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) will collect all information electronically, and
will do so in existing reporting systems. BJA is authorized to collect this information
under the Death in Custody Reporting Act. No additional systems will be implemented.
4. There is currently no single collection repository for the information to be collected as
required in the law.
5. The collection of information does not have a significant impact on businesses or other
small entities.
6. If the information from the agencies is not collected, the government would not be able to
adequately assess if the states and territories covered by the law are complying. Without
the ability to assess compliance, the Attorney General would not be able to determine if
steps would need to be taken to assure compliance.
7. There are no special circumstances identified at this time.
8. The public comment requirement of the Paperwork Reduction Act will be satisfied when
the rule is published in the Federal Register. Ongoing consultation with the appropriate
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SUPPORTING STATEMENT CONTINUED
representatives will occur at least once every three years as required by PRA.
9. No gifts or remunerations are provided to respondents.
10. The system used for submitting information is only accessible to the respondent and the
Federal Government.
11. There are no questions on the application which could be considered by the applicant to
be of a sensitive nature.
12. Estimated burden hours: A total of 13,756 hours are expected total across all parties that
contribute to the data that is submitted to the government. State Corrections Incident
Reports would take a total of 4,640.49 hours quarterly, State Law Enforcement Agency
Incident Reports would take a total of 1,900 hours and the State Quarterly Summary
would take approximately 7,216 quarterly across 56 states and territories.
13. There are no additional costs to the respondents, as they are already reporting quarterly to
BJA on their grant awards.
14. There are no additional costs to the Federal government, as the collection will be
managed by internal staff in a pre-existing system.
15. This new information collection is a program change resulting from agency action
pursuant to the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013 (H.R. 1447)
16. At this time, it is not envisioned that this information will be published. However, the
aggregate program numbers and compliance will be provided to the Attorney General.
17. OJP will display the OMB Control Number and expiration date on the
application/collection form.
18. There are no exceptions identified in Item 19, Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act
Submissions, of OMB Form 83-I.
B.

Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods
This item does not employ statistical methods.

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