Summary: The military services have extensive policies and procedures to encourage applicants to self-report criminal history information. Among other things, the services repeatedly query each applicant, providing as many as 14 opportunities to disclose any criminal offenses to as many as seven different service and military entrance processing station officials. The services also conduct periodic inspections and investigations to ensure the integrity of the entire recruiting process, which includes the disclosure of disqualifying information. The services, however, are not always able to obtain or substantiate all available criminal history information because of service policies and federal, state, and local laws and policies that sometimes preclude access. Several Defense and Justice Department initiatives are underway that could improve the process of obtaining criminal history information. However, DOD and the services have yet to formulate a coordinated approach to use these initiatives to better ensure that the military does not enlist and train persons with undesirable backgrounds.
