SUPPORTING STATEMENT
COPS Progress Report
Part A. Justification:
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 grants 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 a grant-making agency, the COPS Office is charged with monitoring 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 grant management and monitoring plan, and will be used to measure our grantees’ progress in grant implementation and to track the community policing activities of grant recipients. The schedule for the collection of this information is set forth in accordance with 28CFR§66.40, “grantees shall submit annual performance reports unless the awarding agency requires quarterly or semi-annual reports… Annual reports shall be due 90 days after the grant year.” Under 28 CFR§70.51, performance reports for institutions of higher learning and non-profit organizations must be collected on a quarterly basis, and are due 30 days following the reporting period.
Needs and Uses
The COPS Progress Report solicits information about the grantees’ progress toward implementation of their COPS grants and their community policing activities. To help manage the monitoring of grants, the COPS Office must obtain updated information from grantees at regular intervals. COPS Progress Report questions for non-hiring grants help to determine the status of implementation of community policing and purchases of equipment, technology, training, and other items awarded under COPS non-hiring grants. COPS Progress Report questions for hiring grants solicit information about the grantees’ hiring efforts, grant implementation assistance needs, retention planning, and the impact of the grant on increasing the capacity of grantees to implement community policing strategies.
The data received through the Progress Report is reported through the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) measures: number of officers hired, number of officers in hiring/recruitment process, and number of officers in training academy.
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. Grantees without access to the Internet are be contacted by the COPS Office and provided the opportunity to complete their report over the phone. This report is then manually entered into the system. The Internet-based COPS Progress Report includes pre-populated data based on grant 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.
Efforts to Identify Duplication
There is no duplicative effort.
Methods to Minimize Burden on Small Business
This collection instrument will have no significant impact on small business.
Consequences of Less Frequent Collection
Less frequent collection would not allow the COPS Office to obtain the most current information on our grantees’ grant implementation efforts and community policing activities.
Special Circumstances Influencing Collection
There are no special circumstances that would influence the collection of information pertaining to the COPS Progress Report.
Reasons for Inconsistencies with 5 CFR 1320.6
There are no inconsistencies with this regulation.
Payment or Gift to Respondents
The COPS Office does not provide any payment or gift to respondents. Furthermore, it is not permitted under the terms of the grants.
Assurance of Confidentiality
No assurance of confidentiality has been made to respondents.
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.
Estimate of Hour Burden
There will be approximately 1,200 grantees submitting a COPS Progress Report on a quarterly basis, or a total of 4,800 responses annually. The average estimated time to complete a progress report is 25 minutes per grantee submission.
0.4167 hours per respondent x 1,200 respondents x 4 (quarterly response) = 2,000 annual hours
Total Annual Respondent Burden: 2,000 hours
There is no record keeping burden for this collection.
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.
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. The total annual cost to the Federal government is estimated as follows:
1 hour per report x 4,800 reports per year = 4,800 hours
4,800 hours @ $54.72 per hour = $262,656 annually
Reason for Change in Burden
Although the COPS Office will have an estimated 4,800 responses with the COPS Progress Report, the increase in burden is due to the quarterly submission required of each grantee agency or entity beginning in 2014. The number of respondents submitting the report is an estimated 1,200. With each of these respondents submitting the COPS Progress Report quarterly (4X annually), the number of annual responses is 4,800 total.
The COPS Office has changed the frequency of reporting for all grantees to a quarterly 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 25 minutes, the estimated burden is 2,000 hours annually. This is a decrease in annual burden from the previously approved 3,928 hours. As the number of active grantees changes, and as the COPS Office is now requiring quarterly responses from grantees in 2014, this has caused the increase in burden.
In addition, the new COPS Progress Report includes questions that reflect reporting on the grantees’ hiring of officers’ veterans and school resource officers as they are priorities of the FY 13 COPS grant programs.
Publication
This data collection will not be published.
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.
Exceptions to Certification Statement
COPS does not request an exception to the certification of this information collection.
Part B. Statistical Methods: Not applicable
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | SUPPORTING STATEMENT |
| Author | Preferred Customer |
| Last Modified By | kbrummett |
| File Modified | 2015-02-12 |
| File Created | 2015-02-12 |