GAO and racial disparities

From the Government Accountability Office:

. . . [T]hree of our 11 recommendations have not been implemented. Specifically, the Air Force investigations database is not yet able to report consistent demographic data and the Department of Defense (DOD) has not identified when disparities should be further reviewed or studied the causes of disparities in the military justice system. Agency actions taken thus far to address the three remaining open recommendations are as follows:

• The Air Force has developed the capability to present race and ethnicity data in its personnel database consistent with the uniform standards established by the Department of Defense in 2018, but has not yet done so for its investigations database as GAO recommended. The Air Force is currently developing a new case management system that will replace its existing investigations database either in fiscal year 2021 or fiscal year 2022.
• DOD has not identified when any possible racial, ethnic, or gender disparities in the military justice system should be examined further, as GAO had recommended. Officials from DOD's Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI) said that a nonprofit research and analysis organization will conduct a study to further identify disparities in the military justice system. ODEI officials said that they plan to use the findings and recommendations from that study to develop criteria and steps that will be taken to conduct a review on disparities. ODEI officials said that the study should be completed around June 2022.
• DOD and the military services have some assessments of military justice system disparities completed or underway, within which they are beginning to comprehensively study the extent and causes of any disparities, as GAO had recommended. However, DOD has not identified causes or taken steps to address disparities. ODEI officials said the study that will be conducted by a nonprofit research and analysis organization would provide a more independent assessment than a study conducted using internal DOD capabilities. The officials said that they plan to use the findings and recommendations from this study to identify the causes and steps to take to address those causes. In addition to the planned ODEI study, four of the military services are respectively conducting studies about disparities.

You can find a link to GAO's full report here.