death was an accident. We believe the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command, as outlined above and as verified by this report from the Inspector General, conducts thorough investigations of all suicide cases and maintains procedures for careful review, as well as assistance, to affected family members.

In conclusion, the death of a soldier is a tragic loss felt by the entire Army community. Our soldier-agents are dedicated to properly determining the reason for the loss of life so the Army can prevent future deaths. As a soldier, a commander, and a leader I share the concerns of the families going through the tragedy of a death and my agents will continue to be responsive to the needs of these families. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this committee today.

Senator KEMPTHORNE. Let me now call upon Mr. Roy Nedrow, director of Naval Criminal Investigative Services.

STATEMENT OF ROY D. NEDROW, DIRECTOR, NAVAL
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE SERVICE

Mr. NEDROW. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, too, have a written statement that has been prepared for the record, and I will try to skim over it in my remarks here.

Senator KEMPTHORNE. I appreciate that, and Mr. Nedrow, would you pull the microphone closer, please.

Mr. NEDROW. Yes.

We in the Navy sadly are not immune to the tragic phenomenon of suicide. A military suicide affects us from the newest recruits to our most seasoned leaders. Suicide in the military is not only a human tragedy, it affects our readiness and our morale. I want to commend the families of the military suicide victims for shining a spotlight on this issue. They are right to insist on answers. Their anguish and their disappointment is understandable.

To receive, and in some cases you no doubt have already heard, no answers or conflicting answers is unsatisfactory. The Navy is making every effort to address the concerns of the families, and we certainly believe we are making some progress here.

The Navy and the Marine Corps suicide rate is lower than that of the general population. The Navy has in place suicide prevention and family advocacy programs designated to cope with this difficult problem. I hope that the extensive prepared testimony on these programs submitted for the record by the Chief of Naval Personnel will be helpful to you in this regard.

I can best speak to how we at NCIS investigate our cases. We go about this difficult critical job professionally, objectively, and thoroughly. If I could speak just a moment about us, I am a civilian and career law enforcement official. I have 1,700 personnel in my command, 900 special agents. All of them are civilian, with some exceptions. They are stationed in over 130 locations around the world. We investigate all serious crime in the Department, to include most death cases.

Our special agents are trained at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia. This is a world-class institution utilized by 70 Federal law enforcement agencies, to include the Secret Service, the FBI, and Customs.

Our agents receive continued professional training throughout their careers. We provide advanced crime scene and state-of-the-art forensic training to our agent corps, and in addition, we send a small group to the George Washington University to get advanced degrees in forensic science.

Of all of this, the most important thing from our standpoint, if I can only make one point today, is that we treat every death case the same. We do not presuppose suicide. For example, in a case in California that was initially determined to be suicide by local authorities, NCIS subsequently proved murder. The murderer was identified, prosecuted, convicted, and is now on death row.

I have several other examples of cases like that where earlier judgments made by other agencies in death cases have been overturned or reclassified because of our agents' tenacity.

As a matter of fact, we have a resolution rate in homicides of around 85 percent, where the National resolution rate is around 65 percent.

As to our protocol, several possible areas of misperception need to be amplified. As you have heard here today, NCIS does not always control how an investigation is conducted.

We may not have jurisdiction over a case that nonetheless represents important Navy interests, such as a death which occurs offbase. In fact, NCIS has had primary jurisdiction in only about 60 percent of the 906 cases that we have handled over the last 3 years.

Second, medical examiners determine whether or not a death is a suicide, not the investigator. We have no legal authority to determine cause and manner of death. We report the facts and the statements and opinions of others in our file. My agents do not write agent opinions, conclusions, speculations, or theories.

Death investigations are difficult for everyone involved, the families, the friends, the coworkers, and the investigators themselves, but occasionally the families feel their needs and legitimate concerns are not given the respect to which they are entitled.

This is caused by a process that is sometimes confusing. The people who suffer the greatest loss and pain ironically are the people who frequently are left confused and skeptical, and that is the families.

We at the Navy and NCIS are making every effort to overcome this sometimes valid criticism. We are very proud at NCIS that in 1993 we took the lead to make some necessary changes.

We found that the communications between the Navy and the families could be improved, and to that end significantly in 1993 we established the NCIS Family Liaison Office at our headquarters. We assigned two experienced special agents to help family members who until then may not have known where to turn to get their answers.

We discovered a principal problem encountered by the families was that they could not get copies of closed investigations. To fix that problem, we devised a fast track process of getting copies of investigative files in a timely manner while remaining faithful to the constraints imposed by the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act. In fact, now we are proud to say that on average we can get a case out within 4 days after it is closed.

We have created a toll-free 1-800 number that a family can call at NCIS to get quick action. Our Family Liaison Office at this point. has handled 125 families, and the caseload is currently 51 families. We do not close cases on the families. The families stop calling us, and that is how we know the case is over.

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In addition to that, we have assigned a special agent with a master's in forensic science to be liaison to us at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. We have two clinical forensic psychologists to assist us as investigators to help determine the circumstances in select cases and, more importantly, maybe, to support the NCIS family liaison statement. We have also established the cold case homicide squad to reinvestigate long-inactive homicide cases, applying a new protocol and new forensic technology that has only been developed in the last 7 or 8 years.

In the first 2 years of this squad's existence, we have closed 15 previously unresolved cases, and have sent 13 of those to State and Federal prosecutors for prosecution. We are very excited about this unit's work.

Finally, we have established a Death Review Board at NCIS. The Death Review Board is composed of three senior special agents. They are the Monday morning quarterbacks. No death investigation is closed until they are satisfied that the case has been properly done.

In short, in 1992 we had one special agent at headquarters_reviewing all death investigations for completeness. Today, no less than seven agents scrutinize and provide regular oversight and quality control reviews for each investigation, and that does not count the normal quality control that routinely occurs in the field by field management.

I am pleased that you are looking into how we do our job. I am proud of our professional investigative product. I am proud of our concern and our sensitivity to families, and we are also proud of our leadership in this area.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Nedrow follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY ROY D. NEDROW

Mr. Chairman and Members of the committee. I am Roy Nedrow, Director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. I thank you for this opportunity to appear before you today to help you as you delve into a most difficult and heart-rending issue the matter of military suicides. Sadly, the military is not immune to the tragic phenomenon of suicide. It is a serious issue worthy of the most careful consideration. Military suicides afflict our service men and women from the newest recruits to our seasoned leaders. Suicide in the military is not only a human tragedy, it affects our military's readiness and morale.

I want to commend the families of the military's suicide victims for shining a spotlight on this issue. They are right to insist on answers. Their anguish, disappointment, and skepticism are understandable to receive-in some cases you no doubt have heard about or will hear about-no answers or conflicting answers is unsatisfactory. The Navy is making every effort to address the concerns of the families, and we sincerely hope that we are making significant progress in this area.

It was due to the families' insistence that they be heard and their concerns be addressed that the House Armed Services Committee examined from 1992 to 1994 the way the military handles suicide-related issues. I welcomed that scrutiny as I assumed my responsibilities as Director of NCIS in December 1992 because I wanted to know if there were ways the Navy and NCIS could do our job better. The House substantially validated our investigative protocols, the thoroughness of our investigations., and the professionalism of our special agents; but, most importantly, they identified ways we could improve our service to survivors of suicide.

The Navy and Marine Corps suicide rate is lower than that of the general population. The Navy has in place suicide prevention and family advocacy programs designed to identify warning signs, prevent, and deal with these tragedies when prevention fails. I hope that the extensive prepared testimony on these programs submitted for the record by the Chief of Naval Personnel will be helpful to you in this regard.

NCIS

I can speak best to how we investigate deaths in the Navy. Who we are and how we go about the difficult and necessary job of investigating a tragic death is important to explain.

NCIS MISSION

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is an independent, largely civilian investigative agency under the Secretary of the Navy. I am a career law enforcement officer with a total of 1,700 personnel and 900 special agents under my direction, stationed at over 130 locations around the world. Our diverse mission includes security, intelligence and law enforcement responsibilities. We investigate all serious crimes affecting the Department of the Navy, including death cases.

OUR SPECIAL AGENTS

Our special agents are highly trained professionals. At a minimum, all new NCIS agents must have a 4 year undergraduate degree at an accredited institution of higher education. Agents attend rigorous basic investigative training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco,_Georgia-commonly known as “FLETC." FLETC, a bureau of the Department of Treasury, is a world-class institution that provides basic and advanced instruction to Federal agents from 70 Federal law enforcement agencies. Upon successful completion of the FLETC basic course agents are fully certified, credentialed and qualified to conduct felony investigations and process crime scenes. NCIS special agents attend additional specialized training provided by the NCIS training department to prepare agents for the unusual environment in which we operate, to acquaint them with Navy and Marine Corps policies and procedures, and to prepare them to investigate crimes unique to the military.

Training of agents is a continual process. New agents undergo additional training and receive close supervision in the field through a structured Field Agent Training Program and extensive on-the-job experience. All agents receive continual training in the field in a variety of professional subjects throughout their careers. Some experienced agents are trained as expert crime scene specialists-this training includes in-depth instruction in crime scene reconstruction, forensic pathology, biology, and many unique subjects such as blood spatter pattern recognition. Just last month we graduated a class of 15 agents from a 3-week advanced crime scene processing class. We invest considerable sums of money to send a select cadre of agents to obtain advanced degrees in Forensic Science at George Washington University. This graduate-level program provides additional emphasis on forensic pathology, anatomy, and advanced research.

Our investment in this multi-tiered approach to training agents is intended to give us both the breadth and depth we need to conduct complex felony investigations anywhere at anytime on the high seas or in remote locations around the world wherever our Sailors and Marines are on duty. I think the investment is worth every penny. Every NCIS agent is qualified to conduct a first-class investigation of a death; we treat every death investigation as a homicide until the facts prove otherwise; and this is critical to our protocol.

DEATH INVESTIGATION PROTOCOL

That last point bears repeating: we treat every death the same. We do not presuppose suicide. We never "open" a case as a suicide-in fact, we do not have that category as an option in our case coding and accounting system. This has consistently been and will remain the NCIS philosophy.

For example, in one case in California initially determined to be suicide by a local jurisdiction, NCIS subsequently proved that the "suicide" was, in fact, murder. The victims, a 23-year-old spouse of an active duty United States Marine, and her unborn child, were discovered dead in a burning automobile at the bottom of a steep embankment. Although this case was the jurisdiction of the local authorities, NCIS joined the investigation because of significant Marine Corps interest in the case. The NCIS case agent doubted the original ruling of suicide, and, through dogged detective work, uncovered facts proving that the "suicide" was actually a murder. An accessory to the murder was identified and confessed. The murderer was convicted and is now on Death Row.

Our investigators are not only well-trained, professionals, they are, as this example illustrates, tenacious as well. In fact, NCIS resolves 88 percent of the homicides we investigate compared to a 65 percent national resolution rate.

It is important to note that NCIS special agents do not rule a death homicide, accidental or suicide. Only a competent medical examiner, in most cases a civiliana State coroner, for example-may make such a determination. Our agents gather the facts which are then utilized by the medical examiner to make this determination. NCIS reports do not have a statement of conclusion or recommendation or opinion concerning the manner and cause of death. We have no legal authority to determine cause or manner of death.

To put this issue in some perspective, in fiscal years 1993 through 1995, we investigated or participated in 906 death investigations. Of these, we had primary jurisdiction and control over 545 cases. Of these, 129 were, judged by medical examiners to be suicide. At the request of families, the DODIG has accepted 26 of our investigations for review. Twelve of these deaths occurred after 1992 and only 6 of these were cases in which NCIS had primary jurisdiction to investigate. These statistics are significant because they illustrate several important points: • First, NCIS does not always control how an investigation is conducted, because we may not always have jurisdiction over a case that nonetheless represents important Navy interests-such as when death occurs off base. We share jurisdiction with a variety of State and Local law enforcement agencies who have law enforcement responsibility in the civilian communities surrounding our installations. The California case I just described is a good example of such an investigation.

• Second, medical examiners determine whether or not a death is a suicide, not the investigator. We endeavor to gather the facts he or she requires to make that call. We report facts and statements in our files. We do not write opinions, conclusions, speculations and theories; however, we do report the stated opinions, conclusions and theories of others. We have no legal authority to determine cause and manner of death. That responsibility is the province of other authorities, such as the medical examiner.

FAMILY LIAISON

Death investigations are difficult for everyone involved-families, friends, coworkers and the investigators themselves; but, occasionally and tragically families feel their needs and legitimate concerns are not given the respect to which they are entitled due to a sometimes confusing process. The people who suffer the greatest loss and pain, the people who are most deserving of answers to troubling questions are the people most often left confused and skeptical. Unfortunately, this situation is often most acute in those cases determined to be suicides. The Navy and NCIS is making every effort to overcome this sometimes valid criticism.

In the chain of events that follows the death of a military member, a myriad of agencies, organizations and personnel will interact with the surviving families. Not all of these agencies are military organizations. Local police and medical examiners may be involved. Within the Navy a variety of necessary inquiries into the incident may unfold, all for good reason, but all for very different reasons. The NCIS investigation, for example, has as its objective the gathering of facts to assist competent authority in determining whether foul play was involved, and, if so, who is culpable. Judge Advocate General Manual (JAGMAN) and safety investigations examine other issues, policies and procedures related to the death other than the criminal aspects of the incident. This process, by its very complexity, has unfortunately resulted in fragmented and sometimes confusing information being provided to families.

NCIS took the lead for Navy in 1993 to do what we could to make this difficult but necessary process less painful for the survivors. We found that communications between the Navy and the families could be improved. So, in 1993, we established the NCIS Family Liaison Office at NCIS Headquarters. We assigned an experienced special agent full-time to help family members who until then didn't know where to turn to get answers. Due to the volume of work involved we now have a second agent assigned to this important duty. These agents receive specialized training in crisis and bereavement issues from professional institutions and organizations expert in the field.

A principal problem encountered by families, we discovered, was that they could not get copies of investigations quickly after they were closed. We devised a "fast track" process of getting copies of investigative files much more quickly to next-ofkin.

We modified our system to "red tag" these cases for expeditious processing and release through the legally required process. Our Family Liaison staff assists families in filing these requests, prior to official release, in order to further reduce time delays. In fact, we now release as much information as we can under the law, on