Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act - 1121-0321

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

Application for Revision of a Currently Approved Collection

OMB number 1121-0321

Part A. Justification

1. Necessity of Information:

Purpose of collection: This collection of information will be undertaken as part of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Compliance Testing Program (CTP), which is authorized pursuant to the Homeland Security Act of 2002, relevant portions as codified at 6 U.S.C. 162(b)(4) and 6 U.S.C. 162(b)(6)(B). This act authorizes NIJ/Office of Science and Technology “to establish and maintain performance standards in accordance with the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 for, and test and evaluate law enforcement technologies that may be used by, Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies.” The collection of this information is necessary for the operation of the NIJ CTP which administers the testing and evaluation of equipment for law enforcement officers.

Revisions: This collection is a revision to a previous collection which it is intended to replace. The revisions include:

• clarification of roles and responsibilities of participants;

• a new form for implementing electronic signatures; and

• general improvement to facilitate completion by applicants.

2. Needs and Uses:

Intended uses: This collection is a revision of a currently approved collection, and the NIJ CTP will use this information to determine compliance of equipment with applicable NIJ Standards.

3. Use of Technology:

The existing forms have been available electronically but required a handwritten legally binding signature. With the approval of the new NIJ CTP Electronic Signature Agreement form, applicants will now have the option to use a legally binding electronic signature by 1 Jan 2017.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication:

This information is not already available. There are no other conformity assessment programs for law enforcement equipment. Also, the design of the forms ensures that there is no duplicate information requested.

5. Methods to Minimize Burden on Small Businesses:

This information collection will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.

6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection:

The operation of the NIJ CTP would not be possible without this information collection. Once submitted, the documents only need to be resubmitted in the event of a change or to submit new information not covered by previous submissions.

7. Special Circumstances Influencing Collection:

• New NIJ CTP Applicants (manufacturers) are required to submit six forms (NIJ CTP Applicant Agreement; NIJ CTP Authorized Representatives Notification; NIJ CTP Body Armor Build Sheet; NIJ CTP Body Armor Agreement; NIJ CTP Manufacturing Location Notification; NIJ CTP Multiple Listee Notification) in order to participate in the voluntary NIJ CTP. None of these documents are submitted at regular intervals. Four of these documents are product model specific and must be submitted again for each new model the applicant elects to have evaluated through the NIJ CTP. The other documents need only be resubmitted in the event of changes to the information previously provided.

• Respondents agree to share armor model build sheets and testing results with the NIJ CTP, and the NIJ CTP has procedures for maintaining confidentiality of that information.

8. Reasons for Inconsistencies with 5 CFR 1320.6:

There are no circumstances that require the collection of data that would be inconsistent with the guidelines set forth in 5CFR 1320.6. All forms will display a currently valid OMB control number and inform the potential person responding that such person is not required to respond to the collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

The NIJ CTP maintains regular communications with stakeholders in order to answer questions and address concerns. Stakeholders are also provided opportunities to communicate complaints or concerns for NIJ Staff members to address directly.

NIJ has not received any comments concerning past similar collections.

9. Payment or Gift to Claimants:

There are no payments or gifts to respondents.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality:

The collection includes both forms which contain Confidential Commercial Information supplied by the applicant and those that do not. All forms include one of the following Assurance of Confidentiality (Privacy Act Notice) as appropriate:

• “The National Institute of Justice Compliance Testing Program (hereafter, the NIJ CTP) shall use reasonable efforts to maintain confidential all information identified as “Confidential Commercial Information” that it obtains from the Applicant. Confidential Commercial Information shall not include information that is (a) publicly available; (b) subsequently acquired by the NIJ CTP from other sources in a manner that does not constitute a breach of this Agreement; (c) disclosed by the NIJ CTP when deemed, at its sole discretion, to be necessary to the NIJ CTP’s performance of the requested conformity assessment; (d) required to be produced pursuant to an order or command of any judicial or regulatory authority; (e) required by any common law or statutory duty; or (f) disclosed in the interest of officer safety.

The NIJ CTP shall take reasonable steps to safeguard Applicant data within the NIJ CTP systems prior to external transmission and may transmit Applicant's Confidential Information and data to Applicant through the Internet or any public network, unless otherwise directed in writing by Applicant.”; or

• “The information provided in this document is not considered Confidential Commercial Information and may be released without limitations or restrictions.”

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions:

Questions of a sensitive nature are not included in this information collection.

12. Estimate of Hour Burden:

The estimated time is based on the time required to read and complete the forms.

The following forms are submitted by participants at least once but may be resubmitted in the event of changes:

• NIJ CTP Applicant Agreement,

• NIJ CTP Authorized Representatives Notification,

• NIJ Approved Laboratory Application and Agreement.

The following forms are submitted by applicants each time they desire a new product model evaluation:

• NIJ CTP Body Armor Build Sheet,

• NIJ CTP Body Armor Agreement,

• NIJ CTP Manufacturing Location Notification,

• NIJ CTP Listee Notification,

The following form shall be submitted by any participant that desire to use electronic signatures to complete the forms:

• NIJ CTP Electronic Signature Agreement,

Estimates	Number of Annual Respondents	Number of Annual Responses	Average Time per Response	Total Annual Hours
NIJ CTP Applicant Agreement	80	80	60 minutes	80 hours
NIJ CTP Authorized Representatives Notification	25	25	15 minutes	6.3 hours
NIJ CTP Body Armor Build Sheet	60	150	60 minutes	150 hours
NIJ CTP Body Armor Agreement	60	150	15 minutes	37.5 hours
NIJ CTP Manufacturing Location Notification	60	100	15 minutes	25 hours
NIJ CTP Listee Notification	60	60	15 minutes	15 hours
NIJ Approved Laboratory Application and Agreement	5	5	60 minutes	5 hours
NIJ CTP Electronic Signature Agreement	60	60	10 minutes	10 hours
Total		630		328.8 hours

Estimates are based on upon the current NIJ CTP utilizing a similar collection.

13. Estimate of Cost Burden:

There are no start up or capital costs associated with this information collection because the information requested is already maintained by the applicants. There are also no fees or costs charged to the applicant for submitting forms for this collection.

14. Estimated Annualized Cost to Federal Government:

These forms are processed by a “contractor” under a cooperative agreement with NIJ. The portion of the cooperative agreement related to costs to process forms is estimated at $40,000 annually.

15. Reasons for Change in Burden:

Based upon experience, a change has occurred in the number of estimated responses and time to complete the responses.

An additional form has also been submitted in order to utilize electronic signatures that are legally binding.

The table below summarizes the changes since the last renewal of this information collection.

BURDEN:	RESPONSES	HOURS	COSTS
Previous (2013)	774	431	0
New (2016)	630	329	0
Difference	-144	-102	0
Change due to new Statue			0
Change due to Agency Discretion			0
Change due to Agency Adjustment	-144	-121	0
Change due to Potential Violation of the PRA			0

16. Plans for Publication:

A list of compliant products and a list of NIJ-approved test laboratories will be published on www.justnet.org. No other information collected will be published or released in any way, except as may be required by federal law.

17. Expiration Date Approval:

NIJ is requesting an expiration date of three years from the approval date.

18. Exceptions to the Certification Statement:

The intent of this collection is contractual in nature and not intended to collect data for a statistical analysis. Therefore, Clause 19 (i) of Form OMB 83-I concerning the use of “effective and efficient statistical survey methodology” does not apply to this information collection. No other exceptions exist.

Part B. Statistical Methods

The NIJ will not be employing statistical methods in this information collection.

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