From Fox News: The Department of Justice released a report Thursday finding that the Federal Bureau of Investigation regularly failed to properly handle child sex crime allegations.
The DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General (OIJ) began working on the report following allegations the FBI mishandled reports against former USA physician Lawrence Nassar.
The OIJ audited 327 incidents out of 3,925 cases opened by the FBI that allegedly involved “hands-on sex offense against a child or similar offense.”
The audit flagged 42 incidents (13% of all incidents audited) due to the belief they required “immediate attention.”
Below is an excerpt from the Inspector General’s report:
The OIG’s findings included the following:
- Child Sexual Abuse Allegations Requiring Immediate FBI Attention. During our audit, we flagged 42 incidents, 13 percent of the incidents we examined, for FBI headquarters review because we believed they may require immediate attention. The types of concerns identified included: (1) cases that lacked any recent investigative activity or case updates, logical investigative steps, or referrals to appropriate agencies, (2) leads that were not appropriately covered, and (3) instances of substantial non-compliance with FBI policy.
- Suspected Child Abuse Cases Were Not Reported to Appropriate Agencies. All FBI personnel are considered mandatory reporters, meaning that they must report suspected child abuse to the relevant state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) law enforcement agency and social services agency. We identified substantial non-compliance with these requirements. Specifically, we found no evidence that FBI employees complied with mandatory reporting requirements to SLTT law enforcement in 47 percent of the incidents we reviewed or to social services agencies in 50 percent of incidents we reviewed. Of the reports that were made, we found that only 43 percent were made within 24 hours, as required by FBI policy.
- Lack of Evidence of Transferring and Responding to Hands-on Sex Offenses in Compliance with FBI Policy. Since the time of the FBI’s handling of the child sexual abuse allegations against Lawrence Gerard Nassar, the FBI implemented a new tips management system with additional controls for active and ongoing abuse allegations, issued interim guidance requiring such allegations to be acted upon within 24 hours, and updated its policy to require verbal contact and confirmed receipt when transferring CAC/HT complaints or cases between FBI field offices. However, we found the FBI did not document and process all allegations in its new system. Additionally, in the incidents we reviewed, we found 40 percent of the active child sexual abuse allegations did not include evidence the FBI responded within 24 hours and 73 percent of transfers between field offices did not include evidence of verbal contact and confirmed receipt.
- Victim Services Were Not Offered to All Eligible Victims. Both FBI and DOJ policy require the FBI to identify eligible victims and provide them information about available victim services and case status updates. For 36 percent of the eligible victims identified during our review, we found no evidence that they received appropriate services or updates.
The DOJ Inspector General announced their findings in a social media post Thursday morning:
Today we released a report on the FBI’s handling of tips of hands-on sex offenses against children. This is a follow up on issues identified in our July 2021 report on the FBI’s handling of child sexual abuse allegations against Lawrence Gerard Nassar.
We found several deficiencies including non-compliance with relevant law or policy for mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse, victim services, transfers of cases between FBI field offices, and responding to active/ongoing child sexual abuse allegations within 24 hours.
We found several deficiencies including non-compliance with relevant law or policy for mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse, victim services, transfers of cases between FBI field offices, and responding to active/ongoing child sexual abuse allegations within 24 hours.
— DOJ Inspector General (@JusticeOIG) August 29, 2024
We forwarded 13% of the incidents we examined for further FBI review because of concerns that led us to believe the incident may require immediate attention. We made 11 recommendations to improve the FBI’s handling of these allegations.
We forwarded 13% of the incidents we examined for further FBI review because of concerns that led us to believe the incident may require immediate attention. We made 11 recommendations to improve the FBI’s handling of these allegations. Read the report: https://t.co/QoIT50fzLH
— DOJ Inspector General (@JusticeOIG) August 29, 2024
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