A March, 1996 report by Eli Flyer found the following:

• Most DoD recruits who have criminal records escape detection.
• 40% of Navy recruits have criminal records.
• Recruits with criminal records have a much higher rate of attrition.

This brought the Navy's moral screening policy under high-level scrutiny within the Navy Department. A working group was formed to investigate broad issues regarding Navy and Marine Corps policies in this area.

One area of concern was the Navy's moral waiver policy. Currently, only recruits who reveal certain types of information about themselves are subject to background checks. One implication of the previous report was that a large number of recruits had police records, but did not receive a waiver. Would a more thorough screening policy remove a large number of bad-risk recruits?

The primary purpose of this study was to test an alternative police record check policy. The Navy's current policy is to perform police record checks (PRCs) only when a recruit requires a moral waiver for failing to meet Basic Enlistment Eligibility Requirements (BEERs). For this study, PRCs were done upon both a sample of recruits requiring BEERs moral waivers (call it the B sample), and upon a sample of recruits who did not require BEERs moral waivers (call it the other sample); the two samples were compared.

Then, the results of this study were used to project the policy of requesting PRCs for all recruits. Estimates were made of the number of PRCs which would be requested and the number which would be completed, the number of resulting discharges, and the impact of this policy on the Navy.

A second purpose of this study was to gather data on the breakdown of Navy moral waivers between BEERs moral waivers and more stringent program (nuclear field, CT, IJM, etc) moral waivers. DoD procedures allow reporting just one waiver (e.g. moral) although more than one (e.g. moral and medical) may have been granted. The Navy provides combined reporting of BEERs and program moral waivers. The other services report only BEERs moral waivers. This study provided an estimate of the proportion of Navy BEERs moral waivers to total Navy moral waivers, permitting comparison of moral waiver rates between the Navy and the other services.

A survey was used to test the more stringent PRC policy without creating an unnecessary burden on recruiters. Ten of the 31 existing districts were sampled. The districts were picked to ensure that each area of the country was represented, with California being over-represented. The over-sampling from California will permit further analysis comparing current California recruits with recruits of a decade earlier.

From 1 to 21 June 1996, in each of the ten districts a survey was completed for each BEERs moral waiver recruit received (the B sample) and for each of approximately the first 50 non-BEERs moral waiver recruits received (the other sample). So the B cases were oversampled compared to the actual percentage of the Navy which they comprise.

A comparison of the two samples’ compositions with all June 1996 Navy contracts (call it the All sample) showed the following significant differences:

• The mean age of the B sample was 20.3, as opposed to 19.2 for the All sample.
• 4% of the B sample was Black, as opposed to 19% of the All sample.
• 71% of the B sample was White, as opposed to 59% of the other sample.
• 23% of the B sample was Hispanic, as opposed to 14% of the All sample.
• 1% of the B sample was Asian, as opposed to 8% of the other sample.
• 9% of the B sample was Female, as opposed to 16% of the All sample.

There were 78 recruits in the B sample. Under current Navy policy, these recruits would have been subjected to police background checks. Of this group, 87% admitted having an arrest history. PRCs revealed undisclosed information for 12% of this group, resulting in a discharge for 4% of this group.

There were 510 recruits in the other sample. Under current policy, these recruits would have been subjected to police background cheeks. The PRCs revealed undisclosed information in 5% of this group. This information resulted in a moral BEERs waiver being required for 2% of the group, and resulted in a discharge for 0.2% of the group.

As mentioned previously, the Navy lumps together program and BEERs moral waivers when reporting moral waivers. Since the other services report only BEERs waivers, the Navy’s moral waiver rate appears significantly higher than the other services' moral waiver rates although it really is not.

125 recruits received moral waivers, of which 116 were reported to DoD. The 9 unreported moral waivers were all BEERs waivers. Of the 116 reported, 69 were BEERs waivers. So for the purpose of comparison with other services, the 116 moral waivers reported overstates the 78 BEERs waivers granted by 49%.

The two samples were very similar with respect to both the average numbers of PRCs submitted and completed per recruit. The slightly higher average number submitted for the waiver group is consistent with the fact that the waiver group is older, and so a recruit in that group is likely to have lived more places than a recruit in the non-waiver group. So it appears that the two groups were treated similarly.

Jurisdictions’ refusal to release requested information or their failure to pass on that information accounted for 79% of the PRCs which were not completed. The remaining 21% of the not completed PRCs is attributed to the Navy's policy of not submitting fingerprint cards to jurisdictions where those cards are required.

In fiscal year 1995, there were 5,551 recruits granted a moral BEERs waiver, and 41,792 recruits who did not require that waiver. Using the proportions found in the study, the above projections were made for the fiscal year 1995 recruits. The policy of performing PRCs on all recruits requires 7.67 times as much work, but produces only 1.38 times as many discharges, less than a 40% improvement.

In conclusion, the study did not find evidence to support broader police record checks. Nevertheless, the Navy is considering a wider police record check policy, which is likely to be focused on lower quality recruits.