Unit commanders within the Navy and Marine Corps will not have investigative authority over sexual harassment allegations, in keeping with a department-wide message despatched Friday by Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro.
Efficient instantly, the message says, commanding officers should escalate complaints to the following higher-level commander, who will then appoint an investigating officer. That investigator must be from outdoors the command and “shall not be accustomed to the topic or the complainant,” the message says.
The interim coverage features a carve-out to permit an investigator from throughout the identical command to research, nevertheless, if that next-level commander determines an outdoor investigation would “unreasonably intrude with the command’s capacity to finish its mission.” Such a carve-out requires sign-off from no less than a one-star admiral or common, the message says.
The change comes on the two-year anniversary of the homicide of 20-year-old Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén, who complained about sexual harassment at Ft. Hood, Texas, earlier than her killing.
Del Toro’s coverage will stand till the service funds and staffs unbiased investigators to deal with sexual harassment complaints. Nonetheless, these complaints are nonetheless to be dealt with throughout the navy chain of command. Final 12 months the navy stripped sexual assault investigations from commanders however left harassment as much as commanders.
A invoice submitted in each chambers of Congress Friday seeks to deal with that discrepancy.
In an announcement, California Rep. Jackie Speier, D- Hillsborough, who launched the bipartisan Sexual Harassment Unbiased Investigations and Prosecutions Act in Congress, stated it fixes the “large oversight” of the 2022 finances.
“SPC Guillén was sexually harassed by a superior previous to her disappearance and dismemberment,” Speier stated in a assertion. “No motion was taken on her grievance. Many different victims of sexual assault and violent crimes within the navy have shared with me how in addition they suffered from sexual harassment. So long as sexual harassment courts-martial proceed to be dealt with by the navy chain of command, sufferer’s voices will probably be stifled and overwhelmed by a system stacked towards them at each flip.”
The Navy didn’t difficulty an announcement or information launch asserting the coverage shift. On Friday, Lt. Cmdr. Devin Arneson, a Navy spokesperson, confirmed the change is in impact throughout the Navy division, together with the Marine Corps.
This story initially appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.
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