Final Supporting Statement for OMB Clearance11_15_19

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

COPS Progress Report

Part A. Justification:

1. Necessity of Information Collection

The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) was established under the authority of the Attorney General to implement Title I of the “crime bill,” the Public Safety Partnership and Community Policing Act of 1994 (the Act). The Act authorizes the Attorney General to make awards to States, units of local government, Indian tribal governments, other public and private entities, and multi-jurisdictional or regional consortia thereof to increase police presence, to expand and improve cooperative efforts between law enforcement agencies and members of the community, to address crime and disorder problems, and otherwise to enhance public safety.

As an award-making agency, the COPS Office monitors each program, project or activity it funds. To accomplish this, COPS has developed data collection instruments, and programmatic progress reports, and has implemented a comprehensive monitoring plan including these reports, proactive phone contact, and site visits.

The COPS Progress Report will be an important instrument in our award management and monitoring plan, and will measure our awardees’ award implementation progress and track community-policing activities of award recipients. The schedule for the collection of this information is set forth in accordance with CFR§200.328(b)(1), which states the non-Federal entity must submit performance reports at the interval required by the Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity to best inform improvements in program outcomes and productivity. Intervals must be no less frequent than annually nor more frequent than quarterly except in unusual circumstances, for example where more frequent reporting is necessary for the effective monitoring of the Federal award or could significantly affect program outcomes. Annual reports must be due 90 calendar days after the reporting period; quarterly or semiannual reports must be due 30 calendar days after the reporting period.

2. Needs and Uses

The COPS Progress Report solicits information about the awardees’ progress toward implementation of their COPS awards and their community policing activities. To help manage the monitoring of awards, the COPS Office must obtain updated information from awardees at regular intervals. COPS Progress Report questions for non-hiring award programs help to determine the status of implementation of community policing and purchases of equipment, technology, training, and other items awarded under COPS non-hiring award programs. COPS Progress Report questions for hiring award programs solicit information about the awardees’ hiring efforts, award implementation assistance needs, retention planning, and the impact of the award on increasing the capacity of awardees to implement community-policing strategies.

The data received through the Progress Report is reported through the Government Performance Results Modernization Act (GPRMA) measures: number of officers hired, number of officers in hiring/recruitment process, and number of officers in training academy.

3. Efforts to Minimize Burden

The COPS Office is committed to furthering our E-government projects and plans to minimize respondent burden by administering the COPS Progress Report using an Internet-based system that allows the respondents to electronically submit their reports. COPS contacts awardees without Internet access and provides them the opportunity to complete their report over the phone. COPS staff enters this information manually. The Internet-based COPS Progress Report includes pre-populated data based on award and respondent information found in the COPS Management System, thus minimizing the amount of information the respondent must enter. This merged system went live on January 6, 2011.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

There is no duplicative effort.

5. Methods to Minimize Burden on Small Business

This collection instrument will have no significant impact on small business.

6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection

Less frequent collections will not impede the COPS Office to obtain the most current information on our awardees’ award implementation efforts and community policing activities.

7. Special Circumstances Influencing Collection

There are no special circumstances that will influence information collection.

8. Reasons for Inconsistencies with 5 CFR 1320.6

There are no inconsistencies with this regulation.

9. Payment or Gift to Respondents

The COPS Office does not provide any payment or gift to respondents. Furthermore, COPS does not permit payments and gifts under the terms of the award.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality

No assurance of confidentiality has been made to respondents.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

There are no questions of a sensitive nature. No information commonly considered as private is included in the proposed requested information.

12. Estimate of Hour Burden

There will be approximately 1,424 awardees submitting a COPS Progress Report on a semi-annually basis, or 4,042 responses annually. The average estimated time to complete a progress report is 35 minutes per awardee submission.

0.4167 hours per respondent x 1424 respondents x 2 (semi-annually response) = 2,848 annual hours

Total Annual Respondent Burden: 2,848 hours

There is no record-keeping burden for this collection.

13. Estimate of Cost Burden

Completing this report will not generate any costs other than those associated with the applicants’ time. Therefore, the estimated burden cost is $0.

14. Estimated Annualized Cost to Federal Government

The estimated annualized cost to the Federal government for a contracting agency to review, compile, and process the COPS Progress Report should require approximately 1hours per report. No special equipment, other than currently in-use personal computing equipment, is required. COPS estimates the total annual cost to the Federal government as follows:

1 hour per report x 4,042 reports per year = 4,042 hours

4,042 hours @ $54.72 per hour = $221,178 annually

15. Reason for Change in Burden

Although the COPS Office will have an estimated 4,042 responses with the COPS Progress Report. The number of respondents submitting the report is an estimated 1,424. With each of these respondents submitting the COPS Progress Report semi-annually (2X annually), the number of annual responses is 4,042 total.

The COPS Office has changed the frequency of reporting for all awardees to a semi-annually basis in order to enhance management and monitoring efforts of the progress report system.

In addition, the COPS Information Technology team is able to provide greater assistance and support regarding Progress Report analysis and submissions with uniform submissions instead of staggered reporting periods.

With each response taking approximately 35 minutes, the estimated burden is 2,848 hours annually. As the number of active awardees changes, and as the COPS Office is now requiring semi-annually responses from awardees beginning in 2020.

16. Publication

COPS will not publish the data collection.

17. Request not to Display OMB Control Number

COPS will display the OMB approval number and expiration date on the upper right hand corner of the collection instrument.

18. Exceptions to Certification Statement

COPS does not request an exception to the certification of this information collection.

Part B. Statistical Methods: Not applicable

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