The military justice system’s incapability to share critical information with civilian law enforcement agencies is far more flagrant than it was initially considered, the Pentagon’s independent watchdog has revealed — in some cases nearly a third of the time, Politico informs.
After former airman Devin Patrick Kelley killed 26 people in a rural Texas church last month, the Air Force acknowledged that it had not followed the procedure to send notice to the civilian authorities about Kelley’s domestic violence conviction while in uniform — something that would have prevented him from being able to buy a gun.
It subsequently found dozens of other such cases.
However, the problem is far more widespread, the Pentagon’s inspector general revealed Tuesday. A series of “troubling” things were discovered after the revision of 2,502 cases across all four military branches between Jan. 1, 2015 and Dec. 31, 2016.
Of those, fingerprint cards were not submitted to the FBI in 24 percent of the cases and a final disposition report was not submitted in 31 percent.
The military is obliged to send data to the FBI when the service members are convicted of a number of crimes, including drunk driving, stalking and kidnapping. The data is then added to a federal database that is analyzed when someone tries to buy a gun.
The Air Force actually performed better than the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, the new IG report revealed. For example, it failed to submit fingerprint cards and final disposition reports in only 14 percent of convictions, the report stated.
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