1110-0048 Supporting Statement PART A

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

1110-0048

CARGO THEFT INCIDENT REPORT

A. Justification.

1. Necessity of Information Collection

Under the authority of Public Law 109-177 (H.R. 3199), March 9, 2006, USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005, mandates the Attorney General take the steps necessary to ensure that reports of cargo theft collected by city, county, state, federal, and tribal law enforcement agencies (LEAs) are reflected as a separate category in the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) System. The Cargo Theft Incident Report collection instrument supplies the FBI UCR Program with information about each cargo theft which includes at least one of 13 offenses classifications, the location of the cargo theft, the type of weapon used (if any), the monetary value and a description of the property stolen, whether the property is recovered, as well as victim and offender information.

2. Needs and Uses

The FBI's UCR Program serves as the national clearinghouse for the collection and dissemination of cargo theft crime data. The cargo theft data sets received by the FBI UCR Program were so small the program first published these statistics in April 2015. These statistics are now set to be published on an annual basis. The Cargo Theft Incident Report is a necessary mechanism to enable law enforcement agencies to report incidents of cargo theft to the FBI. These data are utilized by the FBI to capture the essence of the national cargo theft crime problem and its negative affect on the economy and national security of the United States. Quality data will be a valuable resource to law enforcement agencies, the academic community, government entities, the general public, and the media.

3. Use of Information Technology

Currently, 100 percent of participating LEAs submit this data collection electronically. Electronic submissions are received via the UCR Summary Microsoft Excel Workbook Tool, and/or by email at <ucrstat@ic.fbi.gov>. The UCR Program has made the UCR Summary Microsoft Excel Workbook Tool available to all LEAs at (www.asucrp.net). An agency/state UCR Program will either submit cargo theft data through the NIBRS or the SRS to the FBI UCR Program. Once the cargo theft data are received at the FBI it is ingested into the Cargo Theft database and included in the Cargo Theft annual publication.

Forty-seven states that participate in the FBI UCR Program have a centralized repository serving as a state UCR Program. State UCR Programs streamline the collection of UCR data from local LEAs, ensure consistency and comparability of data, and provide a higher quality of service to the law enforcement community. The establishment of a state UCR Program is not limited to state governments. Territorial, tribal, and federal agencies may also institute UCR Programs. Provided they are willing to meet the following requirements:

• The state UCR Program must conform to the national UCR Program’s submission standards, definitions, specifications, and required deadlines.

• The state UCR Program must establish data integrity procedures and have personnel assigned to assist contributing agencies and quality assurance practices and crime reporting procedures.

• The state UCR Program’s submissions must cover more than 50 percent of the LEAs within its established reporting domain and be willing to cover any and all UCR-contributing agencies who wish to use the UCR Program from within its domain. (An agency wishing to become a UCR Program is willing to report for all of the agencies within the state).

• The state UCR Program must furnish the FBI UCR Program with all of the UCR data collected by the LEAs within its domain.

These standards do not prohibit a state from gathering other statistical data beyond the national collection.

Several state UCR Programs have established electronic communications with their LEAs throughout their state. Agencies submit data to their state UCR Program who in turn forward it to the FBI. This link between the FBI UCR Program and the state UCR Programs allowed for IT interaction as the FBI UCR Program mandated the elimination of paper submissions and transitioned to an acceptable electronic format.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

This information collection was authorized in direct response to the enactment of Public Law 109-177 (H.R. 3199), March 9, 2006, USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005, which mandated the FBI to establish a cargo theft data collection within the UCR system. The FBI's UCR Program is the only federal agency tasked with collecting cargo theft data.

5. Minimizing Burden on Small Businesses

This information will have no significant impact on small entities. 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 minimized 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 minimizes the burdens to 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 data that are reported by participating 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. To help reduce burden, the FBI UCR Program has provided agencies with electronic data submission methods.

7. Special Circumstances

Cargo Theft data is collected/received from UCR Program participants on a monthly basis. The FBI’s UCR Program has established various time frames and deadlines for acquiring the monthly data. Monthly reports/submissions should be received at the FBI by the seventh day after the close of each month. Annual deadlines are also 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’s UCR Program has the authority to grant these extensions. Participation in the national 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’s UCR Program does not provide any payment or gift to respondents.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality

All FBI UCR Program information collections are held confidential in accordance with Title 42, United States Code, Section 3789(g). Even though this information collection does not contain personal identifier information that may reveal the identity of an individual it is obtained from public agencies and are, therefore, in the public domain. The FBI UCR Program does not assure confidentiality.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

This information collection does not collect information of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimate of Respondent’s Burden

The estimated burden for the cargo theft data collection varies based upon the volume of cargo theft crimes. According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines, the UCR Program conducted an "hour burden" study with a sample of nine potential data contributors and concluded that the average time needed to complete the Cargo Theft Incident Report is five (5) minutes. The FBI UCR Program has the potential of 18,415 participating law enforcement agencies submitting data on a monthly basis. This is 220,980 total responses at 5 minutes burden each for 18,415 full potential burden hours.

Number of respondents: 18,415

Frequency of responses: Monthly

Total annual responses: 220,980

Minutes per response: 5 minutes

Annual hour burden: 18,415 hours

As stated previously the number of respondents is based on the volume of cargo theft incidents. These numbers represent the maximum number of respondents and maximum burden hours possible.

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. The FBI’s UCR Program disseminates the electronic version of the Cargo Theft Incident Report free of charge via the Microsoft Excel Workbook Tool. Respondents are not expected to incur any capital or start-up costs associated with this information collection. Costs to agency Records Management Systems (RMS) 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 Service Level Agreement 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 an $18,000 maintenance fee every year for system maintenance costs.

14. Cost to Federal Government

According to the cost object provided by FBI Criminal Justice Information Services, Resource Management Section, Financial Management 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

Communication/Reporting $ 29,583.84

CSMU Correspondence/Documents $ 394,055.53

Data Requests $ 168,878.28

Development $ 187,158.04

Liaison/Correspond with Fed/State/Local Agencies $ 515,310.70

Liaison with Law Enforcement and CJIS User Comm $ 226,846.86

Marketing $ 42,849.55

Operational Assist (Other than Data Coll/Analysis) $ 30,896.72

Perform General Admin $ 412,138.82

Perform Strategic Planning $ 90,211.92

Perform Unit Budget Activities $ 130,835.90

Policy $ 207,329.86

Program Control $ 64,178.69

Program Planning $ 168,459.24

Provide Tech, Stat and Mathematical Assist/Training $ 230,048.19

Risk Management $ 18,336.99

Special Studies Using UCR Data $ 275,413.29

UCR Automation/Development $ 634,081.93

UCR Data Collection/Analysis $ 1,401,215.46

UCR Publications/Reports $ 465,089.64

Total Cost to Federal Government $ 5,692,919.45

15. Reason for Change in Burden

There is no increase in burden on the individual respondents; however, the overall annual burden hours have increased. This is an adjustment, an increase from 18,108 to 18,498 which is an increase of 390. This increase in burden is due to the number of respondent agencies increasing.

16. Anticipated Publication Plan and Schedule

Published data are derived from data submissions furnished to the FBI UCR Program from local, county, state, federal, 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 Mid-April

Data Processing/Analysis July (current year)-May (following year)

Publication of data September, following year

17. Display of Expiration Date

All information collected under this clearance will display the OMB Clearance Number and Expiration Date.

18. Exception to the Certification Statement

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