WASHINGTON \u2014 The Army\u2019s top general said Wednesday his service has failed in a \u201csignificant amount\u201d of cases to alert the FBI to soldiers\u2019 criminal history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The statement by Gen. Mark Milley, the Army chief of staff, was the most concrete indication that the problem is not confined to the Air Force. That military branch acknowledged last week that it had failed to tell the FBI about the assault conviction of Devin P. Kelley, a former airman who killed 26 people in a Texas church on Nov. 5. That failure made it possible for Kelley to acquire weapons that federal law prohibited him from buying or possessing after his 2012 conviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are gaps and failures on our part to report in to the FBI,\u201d Milley said in an exchange with reporters at the Pentagon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have a significant amount of omissions,\u201d he added. \u201cIt clearly tells us that we need to tighten up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Milley was not specific about the kinds or number of cases that have not been reported to the FBI as required. At one point he said the Army\u2019s problem is \u201cnot too bad,\u201d but he also said \u201cthe percentage is too high\u201d and it needs to be addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably in the 10 to 20 percent\u201d range, he said, adding he would provide a firmer, more specific number when it\u2019s available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just an Air Force problem. This is a problem across all the services where we have gaps in reporting criminal activity of people in service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The day after the Texas church shooting, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis ordered the Pentagon\u2019s inspector general to review the handling of criminal records in the Kelley case. The airman was convicted of assaulting his then-wife and stepson. He was sentenced to 12 months in jail and given a bad conduct discharge, which was completed in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AP Broadcast reporter Sagar Meghani contributed to this story<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Army\u2019s top general said Wednesday his service has failed in a \u201csignificant amount\u201d of cases to alert the FBI to soldiers\u2019 criminal history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":36901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,12,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1354,2484],"class_list":["post-48839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"6Y3YHX35JVEABD3EHIUXQKUZYY","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2017\/11\/16\/army-acknowledges-failures-to-report-crime-data-to-fbi\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n