DoD plans sexual assault crime database

DoD plans sexual assault crime database
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Apr 10, 2012

The Defense Department could take a leap forward in its sexual assault prevention programs this summer with the planned deployment of an all-service database to track the names of victims and alleged offenders, the nature of the assaults, and the outcomes, if any, of legal proceedings.

This will require the services to take a more uniform approach to issues such as handling evidence and conflicting testimony, and also will provide a better look at the scope of the sexual assault problem across all of the services.

A Government Accountability Office report, dated March 30 but released April 10, updates lawmakers on 25 recommendations made by the congressional watchdog group since 2005 for improvements in sexual assault prevention programs.

One bit of progress: The Defense Department has prepared a defense-wide policy for criminal investigative organizations so that all will use the same basic processes and rules for collecting and using evidence. The policy also calls for the services to share resources in both investigating and prosecuting sexual crimes.

Congress mandated a defense-wide database of sexual assaults in 2008, but a joint-service system won’t be fully operational until August, according to the report.
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