1110-0008 Supporting Statement A (2020)

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

1110-0008

Monthly Return of Arson Offenses Known to Law Enforcement

Part A. Justification

1. Necessity of Information Collection

Under the authority of Title 34, United States Code (U.S.C.), Section 41303; 28 U.S.C., § 534, Acquisition, Preservation, and Exchange of Identification Records; Appointment of Officials, June 11, 1930, a Congressional Directive in 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 the FBI 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 collection is necessary for the FBI to maintain a database and serve as the national clearinghouse 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 FBI UCR Program’s arson data collection is 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 FBI UCR Program’s arson data. The FBI serves as the national clearinghouse for storage of all arson statistics; therefore, these data are available upon request to any requester. Examples of other agencies’ uses are:

1. The Department of Justice (DOJ), Bureau of Justice Assistance & Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) uses the FBI UCR Program data in awarding grants under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program.

2. Annual FBI 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 sixteen years of FBI 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 FBI 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 and Logical Entity Exchange Specifications, which are both data standards for information exchange. The Flat File Data Specification is submitted as an 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 that is translated into a standard format for processing the data into the UCR System. These electronic submissions are currently received from state UCR programs and individual law enforcement agencies via e-mail at [email protected]. Currently, these Excel Workbook submissions are scheduled to be no longer accepted after the FBI UCR Program transitions to NIBRS on January 1, 2021.

The FBI 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 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 the enactment of 28 U.S.C § 534, Acquisition, Preservation, 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 is 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 minimize 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 minimize the burdens to the agency.

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 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 timely data, the FBI UCR Program established a task force comprised of the Association of State Uniform Crime Reporting Programs (ASUCRP) representatives and the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (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. Based upon the recommendations from these key stakeholders, the FBI UCR Program is in the process of implementing quarterly releases of offense trends. The validity of these trends will be contingent on regular monthly reporting of UCR data from LEAs.

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 UCR Program has the authority to grant these extensions. Participation in the FBI 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 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 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: 9,454 Summary Reporting System (SRS) respondents

Number of non-respondents: 1,400/607-arson only

Frequency of respondents: Monthly

Total annual respondents: 82,927

Minutes per response: 9

Annual hour burden: 12,439 hours

Total Annual Burden: 12,429 hours

	SRS
Number of months submitted	Number of Agencies	Number of Responses	9 Minute Burden	Totals
1 month	62	62	558
2 months	45	90	810
3 months	46	138	1,242
4 months	67	268	2,412
5 months	81	405	3,645
6 months	121	726	6,534
7 months	112	784	7,056
8 months	148	1,184	10,656
9 months	164	1,476	13,284
10 months	265	2,650	23,850
11 months	888	9,768	87,912
12 months	5,448	65,376	588,384
Non-responsive				1400–all 607–arson
Total Agencies	9,454			9,454
Annual Responses		82,927
Form Completion Hours Burden			746,343 minutes	12,439 hours

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 CJIS Division, Resources 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 Summary Reporting System (SRS). The cost module does not separate the costs between the two methods of collecting UCR data.

Data Collection and Processing Costs

Activity	FY2019 Annualized Cost	FY2019 Annualized Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)
Temporary Duty (TDY) Crime Data Program	$ 92,004.08	1.00
Police Use of Force (UoF)	$ 9,267.53	0.06
UCR Security	$ 9,869.80	0.05
Curriculum design - External Customers	$ 166,386.43	1.11
Administrative	$ 39,044.92	0.20
Assessments/analysis - External Customers	$ 63,363.71	0.40
Provide training instruction - External Customers	$ 229,750.16	1.52
New UCR Metrics and Reporting	$ 20,955.02	0.10
New UCR Operations and Maintenance (O&M)	$ 1,039,673.00	6.22
NIBRS Transition Support to States/ Secured File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) and Web Services	$ 15,914.12	0.10
UoF	$ 193,430.33	1.04
New UCR and Crime Data Explorer (CDE) O&M	$ 62,865.06	0.31
New UCR and CDE O&M	$ 320,556.22	1.97
Conduct UCR audits	$ 80,268.18	1.04
Editing	$ 120,701.94	1.70
Graphics	$ 37,986.43	0.50
Research and Analysis	$ 68,743.57	0.95
Project and Program Management	$ 84,213.69	1.05
Publication	$ 24,056.71	0.30
Video Production	$ 9,050.94	0.12
Writing Services/Support	$ 85,237.45	1.20
Research and Analysis	$ 138,102.45	0.75
Liaison, Education, and Promotion	$ 982,682.24	7.21
Policy, Development, and Management	$ 407,638.57	2.77
Administrative and Human Resource	$ 416,793.71	3.46
Budget Activities, Strategic Planning, and Program Control	$ 557,140.57	3.76
UCR Data Requests and Analysis	$ 691,632.75	6.16
UCR Dev/Ops (UCR- Technical Refresh, CDE, UoF)	$ 801,010.71	6.05
UCR Data Collection & Public Distribution	$ 1,038,030.43	9.55
UCR Life Cycle Support	$ 70,139.67	0.40
UCR Business Management Support	$ 298,661.67	1.80
Program Management	$ 17,381.31	0.15
Conduct Audits	$ 106,545.90	2.00
Direct and Interpret Statistical Methodologies	$ 46,984.00	0.60
	$ 8,346,083.24	65.60

15. Reason for Change in Burden

Due to the FBI UCR Program’s full transition to the NIBRS on January 1, 2021, the FBI UCR Program will no longer be collecting new statistical data under this collection’s terms of clearance after that date. The FBI UCR Program may still accept past data submission from agencies after the 2021 deadline. However, the FBI UCR Program will no longer need an additional 300 hours estimated burden for operational and administrative questions for the state program managers and local LEAs. It is also expected that our burden to state programs and local LEAs in this collection will continue to decrease as more agencies transition to NIBRS. Due to the upcoming transition, the FBI UCR Program intends to shift a large portion of these operational and administrative burden hours to the NIBRS collection.

16. Anticipated Publication Plan and Schedule

Published data are derived from data submissions furnished to the FBI UCR Program from federal, state, county, city, and tribal 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 date: September, following year

17. Display of Expiration Date

All information collected under this clearance will display the Office of Management and Budget (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.

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