1110-0004 PART B_Final

PART B. Statistical Methods

1. The potential respondent universe of the form Number of Full-Time Law Enforcement Employees as of October 31 (OMB No. 1110-0004) includes respondents from United States (U.S.) LEAs who voluntarily report full-time law enforcement employee counts to the FBI’s UCR Program. Approximately 18,439 LEAs participate in the FBI UCR Program, and of those, approximately 13,160 report full-time law enforcement employee data once a year. The LEAs consist of local, county, state, tribal and federal agencies that correlate to all population group sizes and have many diverse attributes. Possible attributes known of these agencies include: a representation of population density and degrees of urbanization; various compositions of population particularly youth concentration; population mobility with respect to residents’ mobility, commuting patterns, and transient factors; different economic conditions including median income, poverty level, and job availability; areas with different modes of transportation and highway systems; different cultural factors and educational, recreational, and religious characteristics; family conditions with respect to divorce and family cohesiveness; climate; effective strength of law enforcement; policies of other components of the criminal justice system; citizens’ attitudes toward crime; and crime reporting practices of the citizenry. Based on historical reporting trends, similar response rates are expected in future full-time law enforcement employee data collections, however, the FBI UCR Program actively liaisons with national LEAs to encourage participation in the UCR Program’s data collections.

UCR Agencies, 2015
	Population Group	Number of Agencies	Population Covered
Cities	Group I (250,000 inhabitants and more)	83	61,173,970
	Group II (100,000 to 249,999 inhabitants)	218	32,439,832
	Group III (50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants)	497	34,534,593
	Group IV (25,000 to 49,999 inhabitants)	900	31,133,502
	Group V (10,000 to 24,999 inhabitants)	1,924	30,704,780
	Group VI (Less than 10,000 inhabitants) 1,2	9,691	26,604,998
Counties	Group VIII (nonmetropolitan County)2	2,890	27,652,980
	Group IX (Metropolitan County)2	2,236	77,174,165
	Total	18,439	321,418,820

¹ Includes universities and colleges to which no population is attributed.

² Includes state police to which no population is attributed.

UCR Participation, 2015
Number of Months Submitted	Number of Agencies
1 month	168
2 months	94
3 months	127
4 months	126
5 months	112
6 months	138
7 months	159
8 months	199
9 months	192
10 months	248
11 months	479
12 months	14,712
# of agencies not participating in any UCR collection	1,685
Total	18,439

2. All data are collected/received from state UCR program participants on a one time annual basis. The FBI’s UCR Program has established time frames and deadlines for acquiring the annual data. Letters are disseminated via e-mail in October to state UCR program managers and national LEAs requesting the completion of information on current year’s police employee counts as of October 31. The letter specifies that the data submission deadline is December 14. Prior to December 14 the FBI’s UCR Program will contact state UCR Program Managers and individual LEAs to inform them that the FBI has not received the police employee counts. Annual reports/submissions should be received at the FBI by December 14. 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.

The FBI CJIS Division is projected to deploy the New UCR Project later this year. This project will manage the acquisition, development, and integration of a new and improved data collection system which will affect the UCR Program participating local, state, tribal and federal LEAs. The goal for the project is to improve the accuracy and timeliness of the crime data collection and delivery process. The New UCR Project will provide enhanced data management tools for greater efficiency in data collection, processing, and maintenance of crime data. The project will offer automated processes, tailored reports on an as-needed basis, and will streamline publication processes that will give users more timely access to the data.

3. Response rates are maximized through liaison with state UCR programs. The universe of reported full-time law enforcement employee counts are collected by contributing agencies and reported to the FBI. Currently, 71.4 percent of the FBI UCR Program agencies report full-time law enforcement employee data. The FBI is working to help the absent 28.6 percent of LEAs participate in the full-time law enforcement employee data collection through active liaisons with our LEAs. Communications encouraging data submissions occur frequently because of the relationship between FBI UCR Program staff and LEAs. FBI UCR Program staff has a strong understanding of contextual challenges agencies face in reporting valid and reliable data and regularly work to overcome non-response issues when such challenges occur. The mission of the FBI UCR Program is to acquire full-time law enforcement employee data, establish guidelines for the collection of such data, and to publish data.

The IACP provides vital links between local law enforcement and the FBI in the conduct of the national UCR Program. Additionally, the National Sheriffs’ Association also encourages sheriffs throughout the country to participate fully in the FBI UCR Program. Both committees serve in advisory capacities concerning the FBI UCR Program’s operation. The ASUCRP focuses on UCR issues within individual state law enforcement associations and also promotes interest in the FBI UCR Program. Finally, the national UCR Program receives guidance for implementing changes to a data collection from the CJIS Advisory Policy Board. The FBI CJIS advisory process was developed to obtain the user community’s advice and guidance on the development and operation of all the CJIS Division programs. The philosophy underlying the advisory process is one of shared management; that is, the FBI along with local, state, tribal, and federal data providers, and system users share responsibility for the operation and management of all systems administered by the FBI for the benefit of the criminal justice community. Together, these organizations foster widespread and responsible use of uniform crime statistics and lend assistance to data contributors when needed.

Law enforcement agencies are not mandated to submit full-time law enforcement employee data to the FBI UCR Program. Participation in the UCR Program is voluntary. To assist non responsive agencies the FBI UCR Program provides training, liaison, and reference material.

4. The FBI has conducted the full-time law enforcement employee information collection since 1930 with high rates of response and has specific plans to further improve participation; proposed initiatives are described in Part B #3. During implementation of the full-time law enforcement employee information collection in 1971, extensive research regarding full-time law enforcement employee counts, potential inclusion of part-time employees, salaries of law enforcement employees, and total hours worked by such employees was conducted by members of the FBI’s UCR Program staff, the Secretary of Labor, and the Division of Statistical Standards. Liaison with members of law enforcement had been effective in the effort to collect full-time law enforcement employee data and to design a collection form which would provide meaningful information to all those concerned. No comments or suggestions of problems with the form have been reported through the CJIS Advisory Policy Board (APB) Working Groups, UCR Subcommittee, CJIS APB, or the ASUCRP. These organizations meet frequently throughout the year and are dedicated to improving the collection, use, and utility of crime data as reported through the FBI UCR Program and all state and local crime reporting programs.

With the addition of the Use of Force Collection, the FBI UCR Program will be adding new data collection elements to the Police Employee data collection based on the approval APB recommendations. The national UCR Program is currently working with our law enforcement stakeholders to establish a definition for “police contacts”. When this tasking is completed, the following data elements will be added to this collection.

• The ability to capture part-time and reserve/auxiliary/other law enforcement officers;

• Race and ethnicity categories;

• Information on recorded police contacts with citizens.

5. Christopher A. Nicholas

LESS Chief

<christopher.nicholas@ic.fbi.gov>

304-625-3690

Amy C. Blasher

CSMU Chief

<amy.blasher@ic.fbi.gov>

304-625-4840

Cynthia Barnett-Ryan

Statistician

<cynthia.barnett-ryan@ic.fbi.gov>

304-625-3576

Kristi L. Donahue

Management/Program Analyst

<kristi.donahue@ic.fbi.gov>

304-625-2972

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