FORT HOOD, Texas — The U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Military Personnel questioned the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee about a laundry list of issued detailed in their Fort Hood Report on March 16.
Congressmembers moved on to their second panel and began to question Major General Donna Martin, the Commanding General of U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, about those shortcomings.
Fort Hood's Criminal Investigation Division (CID) was criticized for its inexperienced agents, poor command structure and leadership, incomplete investigations and lack of relationships with local law enforcement. Martin said that the last issue was being dealt with.
"I am happy to report that is being addressed currently," Martin said. "With the new 89th MP commander on the ground now. He has established those cells. CID is a part of those cells. And so criminal intelligence fusion is being done with state and local law enforcement and with law enforcement on the installation."
6 News followed up with the Killeen Police Department and Fort Hood officials after this claim was made, and found that a planned-out partnership was indeed forming between the post and Killeen PD.
Fort Hood CID, however, was not in charge of that partnership.
The task went to the 89th Military Police Brigade commanded by Colonel John Curry. Colonel Curry and Killeen Police Chief Charles Kimble spoke to 6 News Thursday about the advances they are making.
"Killeen is the highest concentration off-post of our adjacent community, " Curry said. "If we are not sharing police information, crime trends and hot spots we'll migrate between on post and off post. So if his organization and our organization is not working hand-in-glove to share critical information, then we create a gap in police knowledge that blunts our agility to respond to crime."
Curry said a Fort Hood liaison will be placed at the Killeen Police Headquarters and would help send information to and from the police department to speed up responses for both agencies. Chief Kimble said it would exponentially speed up communications with Fort Hood.
"What would normally take a day or so to go through the channels, I now have someone in my building, someone in the Army, that I can talk to," Kimble said. "I have a person we can use to share information very expeditiously when needed."
Kimble said communication with Fort Hood would now be achieved in hours instead of days.
Curry said the information from the Killeen Police Department may help them better respond to soldiers who are currently struggling with a problem off base and help that soldier. Kimble echoed that sentiment.
"That soldier may be going through some things. He may be going through a mental health issue. I can get that to his (Curry's) representative in hours now," Kimble said.
However, the partnership does not immediately connect Killeen PD to Fort Hood CID. Curry said he believed the embedded representative would be helpful in communicating with CID as well, but he also repeatedly told 6 News he cannot speak about how CID is currently operating or how they are specifically plugging into the effort.
On Tuesday, Members of Congress repeatedly asked Martin if issues with CID's lack of experience, and failure to complete investigations off post, would be addressed. Martin told representatives the Army was considering adding more 1811 civilian investigators to CID's ranks and said those investigators should be to go off-post to deal with felony issues.
"If a suicide or a case happens off the installation, we do a collaborative investigation with local law enforcement in every case. Our 1811s have that authority to conduct those cases," Martin said. "They have jurisdiction off post, our military investigators do not."
Despite Martin's comments that said, "The 89th MP commander on the ground now. He has established those cells. CID is a part of those cells," Curry said he did not have any authority over 1811 investigators or any CID agents. For that reason, he was not able to speak to any of the CID shortcomings mentioned in the congressional hearings or explain to 6 News if CID would be sending agents out in the field.
Kimble told 6 News that the Killeen PD had worked with CID agents and 1811 investigators in the past and had been able to maintain the relationships needed to serve both agencies.
"We know the detectives, investigators, 1811s as you call them. We know them as informal contacts. We have them in our phones," Kimble said. "Will that be formalized in paperwork here soon? Probably. When I call, I know I will have resources when I need them."
At the same time, the Fort Hood Report stated, "Numerous law enforcement, civilian and military sources cited a persistent lack of continuity as a problem in establishing any kind of working relationship with CID at Fort Hood."
When 6 News asked Fort Hood to contact us with CID for answers about how their agency would be improved, the public information officers referred 6 News to a spokesperson in Quantico, Virginia.
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