1110-0006 Supporting Statement A

Supporting Statement A for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

Extension of a currently approved collection;

1-705 Law Enforcement Officers Killed or Assaulted

OMB Control # 1110-0006

A. Justification

1. Necessity of Information Collection

Under the provisions of the Uniform Federal Crime Reporting Act of 1988, Title 34, United States Code (U.S.C.), Section 41303 (2012) (reorganizing and reclassifying this title from the notes of 28 U.S.C. § 534) and the FBI’s authority to acquire, preserve, and exchange identification records, 28 U.S.C. § 534, the FBI was designated by the Attorney General to acquire, collect, classify, and preserve national data on federal criminal offenses as part of the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). For nearly 90 years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has also collected data and information under this program from state, local, and tribal criminal justice agencies.

Form 1-705, Law Enforcement Officers Killed or Assaulted (LEOKA) supplies the national UCR Program with a monthly total count of line-of-duty felonious or accidental officer killings and a monthly count and supplemental information on officer assaults. This information collection is necessary, in part, for the FBI to carry out its statutory mandate. To do this, the FBI maintains a database and serves as the national clearinghouse for the collection and dissemination of the total number of law enforcement officers killed, supplemental information on the total number of law enforcement officers assaulted, and to ensure publication of the annual edition of LEOKA.

2. Needs and Uses

The LEOKA form is necessary in order for law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to report the total number of officer deaths and information on officer assaults. Law enforcement data are used for research and statistical purposes. The national UCR Program is able to generate reliable information on law enforcement officers killed and assaulted in the line of duty. The law enforcement community and training centers specializing in law enforcement use the LEOKA publication as a tool to develop training programs which support officer safety. In addition, members of federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement organizations use this publication as part of their research, as do governmental offices, special interest groups, academia, and all who are concerned about the men and women who serve in law enforcement. Examples of other agencies uses are:

1. The FBI serves as the national clearinghouse for storage of all police statistics; therefore, the data are available to any data user upon request. From 2015-2018, the FBI UCR Program received 285 requests for the LEOKA data.

2. The LEAs and training academies request the LEOKA information to incorporate in law enforcement training programs.

3. Federal, state, local, and tribal LEAs request the LEOKA information to perform research on specific topics of interest, i.e., use of body armor, weapon information, etc.

4. National, state, and local legislators request the LEOKA information for varied research and planning purposes and law enforcement administration, operation, and management.

5. Special interest groups, media, and academia request the LEOKA information for research.

3. Use of Information Technology

All FBI UCR Program participants submit their crime data electronically. The FBI provides three different options for state UCR programs and individual LEA participants to provide the LEOKA 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 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 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 System. State UCR programs and individual LEAs currently submit these electronic submissions via e-mail at <[email protected]>.

The FBI 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 the 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

The FBI is the only federal agency collecting extensive data on law enforcement officers killed and assaulted in the line of duty in the United States.

5. Minimizing Burden on Small Entities

This information will have no significant impact on small LEAs. 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, semi-annually, or annually. Although monthly submission is recommended, upon approval by the FBI UCR Program, agencies can submit data at intervals to 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, semi-annually, and annually, upon approval by the FBI UCR Program, in order to minimize their burden.

Numerous entities use this information, which include, but are not limited to the following: LEAs, legislators, researchers, special interest groups, and academia to develop officer safety training and initiatives. The UCR Program’s data are also used for administration, operation, management, and to determine effectiveness and placement of resources. Agencies will justify task forces, staffing levels, and officer counts compared to other LEAs in order to receive additional staffing levels, equipment, or funding.

7. Special Circumstances

Annual deadlines are designated to collect/assess receipt of monthly submissions. Participation in the FBI UCR Program is voluntary.

8. Public Comments and Consultations

The Federal Register 60- and 30-day notices have been submitted and no public comments have been received.

9. Provision of Payments or Gifts to Respondents

The FBI UCR Program does not provide any payment or 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 collect information of a sensitive (personally identifiable and law enforcement sensitive information) nature.

12. Estimate of Respondent’s Burden

The estimated cost of the respondent’s burden for this data collection is as follows:

Number of respondents 9,604 Summary Reporting System (SRS)

respondents

Number of non-respondents 68

Frequency of responses 12 times per year

Total annual responses 111,698

Minutes per response 7 minutes

Annual hour burden 13,031 hours

	SRS
Number of months submitted	Number of Agencies	Number of Responses	7 min. Burden	Totals
1 month	49	49	343
2 months	29	58	406
3 months	128	384	2,688
4 months	37	148	1,036
5 months	31	155	1,085
6 months	39	234	1,638
7 months	39	273	1,911
8 months	36	288	2,016
9 months	44	396	2,772
10 months	85	850	5,950
11 months	181	1,991	13,937
12 months	8,906	106,872	748,104
Non-responsive				68
Total Agencies	9,604			9,604
Annual Responses		111,698		111,698
Form Completion Hour Burden			781,886 minutes	13,031 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. 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 Law Enforcement Officers Killed or Assaulted free of charge via the Microsoft Excel Workbook Tool. For many reasons, costs to agency records management systems (RMS) are very difficult to obtain. Vendors do not divulge costs due to the fact vendors charge differently from agency to agency. Many costs are built into the vendor’s Service Level Agreement contracts. Depending on the vendor contracts, changes mandated by law could be included within the original contract with no additional costs. However, an estimate has been projected wherein agencies pay a $107,000 maintenance fee every year for system maintenance costs.

The FBI is currently undergoing a transition to move SRS agencies to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) by January 1, 2021. To assist agencies with this transition, select LEAs and state UCR Programs received funding through the National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X) from 2015 through 2018. When the NIBRS transition process is complete, the FBI will reevaluate the maintenance fee costs.

14. Cost to Federal Government

According to the cost model provided by the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division, Resources 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 $ 57,323.65

Application for Resources Support $ 102,408.71

Budget Activities, Strategic Planning & Program Control $ 246,410.76

Communication/Reporting $ 243,362.19

Conduct UCR Audits $ 445,639.38

Crime Data Explorer $ 51,131.81

Develop and Implement Policy $ 89,290.89

Editing $ 155,135.97

Graphics $ 37,903.52

Human Resource Management $ 3,377.87

Liaison, Correspondence, Data Requests $ 396,264.71

Manage Acquisition Review Process $ 1,765.64

Marketing $ 37,654.64

Media Requests $ 52,985.40

New UCR $ 351,744.48

New UCR Contingency Planning $ 6,813.66

New UCR Metrics and Reporting $ 4,214.21

New UCR Operations and Maintenance $ 156,141.15

New UCR Operations and Maintenance Enhancements $ 8,992.64

Operational Assistance $ 88,985.98

Operational Product Compilation $ 43,488.76

Perform Section Budget Activities $ 26,195.09

Perform Strategic Planning $ 75,182.11

Policy, Development, and Program Planning $ 281,749.12

Project and Program Management $ 151,469.22

Provide Technical, Statistical, Mathematical Assistance/

Training $ 59,546.50

Publication $ 45,439.28

Research and Analysis $ 287,208.15

Special Studies Using UCR Data $ 83,601.53

Support UCR Program Development $ 301,690.13

UCR Automation/Development $ 311,085.66

UCR Data Analysis $ 394,412.67

UCR Data Collection $ 391,888.47

UCR Operations and Maintenance $ 217,716.14

UCR Operations and Maintenance Enhancements $ 186,297.66

UCR Publications/Reports $ 500,207.31

UCR Quality Assurance and Content Management $ 14,221.54

UCR Security $ 12,997.37

Writing Services/Support $ 293,842.59

Total Cost to Federal Government $ 6,215,786.56

15. Reason for Change in Burden

There is no increase in burden on the individual respondents; however, the overall annual burden hours have decreased. This is an adjustment, a decrease from 13,551 to 13,031, which is an overall decrease of 360. The burden hours decreased due to the number of respondent agencies converting from the SRS to the NIBRS.

16. Anticipated Publication Plan and Schedule

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

Request missing data from agencies February and March, following year

Deadline to submit data Late March

Data Processing/Analysis October-April

Publication of data October of following year/LEOKA

17. Display of Expiration Date

All information collected under this clearance will display the Office of Management and Budget’s Control Number and Expiration Date on the Law Enforcement Officers Killed or Assaulted.

18. Exception to the Certification Statement

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

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