Army fails to report soldiers' criminal activity, chief of staff says

Nov. 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army chief of staff said the branch has failed to property report soldiers' criminal activity to law enforcement agencies like the FBI.

"We have significant amount of omissions that concern the secretary [of the Army] and I," Army chief of staff Gen. Mark Milley told reporters Wednesday, according to USA Today.

Milley said as many as 10 to 20 percent of the Army's total cases are not reported.

Milley's comments come after the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas earlier this month. The shooter, Devin Patrick Kelley, was a former member of the U.S. Air Force who received a bad conduct discharge after serving one year in prison for assaulting his wife and child. But Kelley's military conviction was never reported to law enforcement and he was legally able to purchase firearms.

If Kelley's military conviction was entered into the federal database, he would not have been able to purchase weapons he used to kill 26 people.

"It's not just an Air Force problem," Milley said, according to ABC News. "It's a problem across all the services where we have gaps in reporting criminal activity of people in service when they're convicted or they get a dishonorable discharge."

Milley said about 150 soldiers receive a court martial and are dishonorably discharged from the Army each year and are required to be reported to law enforcement.

"We need to make sure every one of those is transmitted over to the civilian law enforcement agencies, the FBI for example," he said.