Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor Justification (Final 4-20-2022)

Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor

OMB No. 1121 - 0259

1. JUSTIFICATION

1. Necessity of Information: On May 14, 2001, the United States Congress passed F1.R.802, the “Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor Act,” (“MOV Act”) which was later signed into law on May 30, 2001. The law states, “After September 1, 2001, the President may award, and present in the name of Congress, a Medal of Valor of appropriate design, with ribbons and appurtenances, to a public safety officer who is cited by the Attorney General, upon the recommendation of the Medal of Valor Review Board (“Board”), for extraordinary valor above and beyond the call of duty. The Public Safety Medal of Valor (“MOV”) shall be the highest national award for valor by a public safety officer.” Without the collection of this data, public safety officers laying their lives on the line to protect the lives of others may go unrecognized. It is important that this information is collected to acknowledge these brave men and women for their altruistic acts of valor.

Each year, the nomination submission period opens on or about May 31 and closes on or about July 31, to provide nominators a full two months to apply. Following the close of the nomination submission period, the Board Members are accorded one month to conduct their initial/individual reviews of nominations meeting basic minimum requirements, including any supporting documents, before the full Board convenes to deliberate and make its recommendations. According to the MOV Act, “not more often than once each year, the Board shall present to the Attorney General the name or names of those it recommends as MOV recipients.”

2. Needs and Uses: The information collected within these nominations will provide the basis for considering each nomination and determining which public safety officers will be recommended to receive the MOV award. This award recognizes public safety officers who have demonstrated courage and bravery above and beyond the call of duty without regard for their personal safety. The MOV Board, as required by the MOV Act, is appointed by the President, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the U.S. Senate, and the Speaker and the Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Board shall recommend nominees from among those nominations received by the National Medal of Valor Office.

3. Use of Technology: The nomination process is managed through the Internet, using the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) MOV electronic nomination system at:

https://bja.ojp.gov/program/medalofvalor

Prospective nominators must nominate candidate(s) using this electronic paperless system.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication: These nominations will be used solely to nominate public safety officers for this award. The information collected is specific for this program.

5. Impact on Small Business: The information collected is only requested from federal, state, local, and tribal public safety agencies. There is no impact on small businesses or other entities as they are not eligible for the program.

6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection: If this collection is not conducted, the requirements of the Act would not be satisfied, and public safety officers who have risked their lives may go unrecognized for their exceptional valor, extraordinary decisiveness, presence of mind, and unusual swiftness of action, regardless of their own personal safety, in the attempt to save or protect human life.

7. Special Circumstances Influencing Collection:

1. Nomination is voluntary. Information is collected only if a public safety agency decides to nominate one or more of its public safety officers for exceptional acts of bravery. A separate nomination must be submitted for each public safety officer, and for each incident of bravery.

2. Nominations will be used only for the recognition of acts of valor accomplished during a given valor period. Each MOV period runs from June 1 through the following May 31.

3. The online MOV nomination is accessible via the MOV website, and is the only avenue for nomination submission.

4. This collection is not part of a statistical survey.

5. This collection does not require the use of statistical data.

6. According to the MOV Act, the Board shall not disclose any information that may compromise an ongoing law enforcement investigation or is otherwise required by law to be kept confidential.

7. The submission of supplemental supporting material is provided manually and is voluntary.

8. The collection does not request proprietary information.

8. Federal Register Publication and Consultation: OJP will solicit public comments on the data collection per Office of Management and Budget (OMB) specifications. The 60-day and 30-day Federal Register Notices will be published to inform and solicit comments from the public. OJP will address responses to the notice as they become available. If comments are pertinent, they will be incorporated into the online application.

9. Payment or Gifts to Respondents: Respondents nominating a public safety officer will not be compensated for this collection. However, nominations will be used to recommend one or more public safety officer(s) for recognition; therefore, an MOV Decoration Set would be presented to the nominee(s) that the Board selects to recommend; who are cited by the U.S. Attorney General, and approved by the President.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality: The Board shall not disclose any information that may compromise an ongoing law enforcement investigation or is otherwise required by law to be kept confidential. OJP is compliant with 28CFR22, which protects confidentiality of identifiable and statistical information and is committed to keeping a system of records that is consistent with the regulations of the Privacy Act.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions: This nomination does not contain any questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimate of the Hour Burden: During the 2020-2021 Medal of Valor nomination submission period, there were a total of 1705 nominations received. The process is estimated to take approximately 25 minutes to gather the required information and complete the online form.

1705 x 25 minutes = 42,625 minutes/60 = 710.41 hours.

The projected hours per response are based upon estimates provided by previous collections. This estimate includes reviewing the fields of required and optional information and entering the data into each relevant field.

13. Estimate of the Total Annual Cost Burden: There are no direct costs to the nominators other than the time taken to complete and submit the voluntary online nomination. Nominators are not requested to create and maintain an independent data collection or reporting system, nor are they requested to travel. Consequently, the nominators incur no additional costs.

14. Estimates of Annualized Cost to the Federal Government: This estimate does not factor in the additional costs associated with the operation of this program outside of the initial nomination review activities of the MOV Designated Federal Officer. The estimated annualized cost to the federal government for a GS-0301-13/10 to conduct the basic minimum review, compile, and process 143 nominations (based on an average of three nomination periods, not including the 2020-2021 nomination period) at 10 minutes per nomination is projected as follows:

143 nominations x 10 mins = 1,430 minutes/60 min per hour = 23.83 hours.

GS-13/10 Program Lead/Designated Federal Officer (the general grade/step of incumbents that may fill this position)

23.83 hours x $ 89.83 (Average hourly wage of 53.85 plus 35% fringe benefit rate) = $2,140.65

Board Members

The authorized complement for the Board is 11 appointed members. These members are federal, state, and local employees; public safety practitioners; and/or private citizens with knowledge or expertise in the field of public safety. A budget is allocated as required by 42 U.S.C. § 15203 for travel, room and board, and compensation for the non-governmental employee Board Members for time engaged in board-related activities.

15. Reason for Changes in Reporting Burden: This is an approval of a currently approved information collection

16. Plans for Publication: OJP acknowledges that the citation of MOV recipients will vary following the submission to the U.S. Attorney General of the Board recommendations. The issuance of a press release, announcements, and publication in newsletters or local media journals are contingent upon the identification of a date for the MOV ceremony and might take several months longer. Annually, the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance engages in a range of outreach efforts (e.g., email blasts, social media marketing, direct mailings) to inform public safety agencies of the opportunity to submit MOV nominations for the MOV. The President ultimately awards the MOV to the public safety officers who have been cited by the Attorney General after being recommended by the MOV Board.

Nominations are accepted for acts of valor that occurred between June 1 and May 31 of the following year, by completing an online application at: https://bja.ojp.gov/program/medalofvalor. The deadline for receipt of nominations is July 31.

17. Expiration Approval Date: The OMB Number and Expiration Date are displayed on the application form.

18. Exceptions to the Certification Statement: OJP does not request an exception to the certification of this information collection.

2. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS

Statistical methods will not be used in this information collection.