Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request, 83864-83865 [2024-24144]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
• Department of the Navy

[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 202 (Friday, October 18, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 83864-83865]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-24144]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Navy

[Docket ID: USN-2024-HQ-0010]


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

AGENCY: Department of the Navy, Department of Defense (DoD).

ACTION: 30-Day information collection notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The DoD has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act.

DATES: Consideration will be given to all comments received by November 
18, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed

[[Page 83865]]

information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular 
information collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--
Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Reginald Lucas, (571) 372-7574, 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title; Associated Form; and OMB Number: CATCH Program; OMB Control 
Number 0703-0069.
    Type of Request: Revision.
    Number of Respondents: 1,765.
    Responses per Respondent: 1.
    Annual Responses: 1,765.
    Average Burden per Response: 20 minutes.
    Annual Burden Hours: 588.
    Needs and Uses: Section 543 of Public Law 113-291, the National 
Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2015, requires that an 
individual who files a restricted report on an incident of sexual 
assault may elect to inform a Military Criminal Investigative 
Organization (MCIO) on a confidential basis and without affecting the 
restrictive nature of the report. The MCIOs use this information by 
querying it against existing records in the CATCH database and against 
law enforcement investigations involving sexual assault to identify 
potential serial sexual assault offenders in both restricted and 
unrestricted reports of sexual assault. Previously, this information 
was not available to the MCIOs in cases of restricted reporting. A 
separate database is required to prevent compromise of the victim's 
confidentiality which is likely to occur if the information is entered 
into MCIO law enforcement case management databases.
    Respondents to this information collection are victims in 
restricted and certain unrestricted reports of sexual assault made to 
the Department of Defense through the Sexual Assault Prevention and 
Response (SAPR) Program. Upon making a report of sexual assault to a 
Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC), each potential respondent 
is given the option to make a voluntary submission to this database. 
The respondents who elect to participate can do so by providing 
information electronically through the CATCH website or through a 
printed CATCH submission form. Instructions and unique login 
credentials or the printed form are provided by the SARC handling their 
case.
    For electronic submissions, respondents are directed to the CATCH 
Program website (https://profile.ncis.navy.mil) by the SARC. Every 
active duty and adult military dependent sexual assault victim making a 
report of sexual assault through the SAPR program is assigned a SARC 
who coordinates services for the victim throughout the process. All 
SARC personnel receive training on this program and are required to 
brief all eligible victims reporting sexual assault on the option of 
using the CATCH database to report information to the MCIO. Each SARC 
will maintain the form and instructions to provide the information 
electronically as part of the required information to provide to all of 
their clients. The respondent may complete the CATCH submission form, 
at their convenience, and mail it directly to the Naval Criminal 
Investigative Service (NCIS) Headquarters (HQ) in Quantico, VA. The 
form contains a mailing address to submit the paper collection 
instrument upon completion. Alternatively, and more commonly, the 
respondents may submit information electronically at the CATCH website. 
The respondents access the system through the use of unique login 
credentials provided by the SARC.
    The information provided by the respondents is entered into a 
secure database maintained by the NCIS HQ in Quantico, VA. If 
information is provided by the printed form, an NCIS HQ criminal 
investigator will enter the information into the database manually upon 
receipt. If information is provided electronically, the respondent will 
submit the entry directly into the database. MCIO HQ personnel then 
review the suspect and incident details within the respondents' entries 
and query those details against the CATCH system to compare with other 
CATCH entries. The details are also queried against MCIO case 
management systems and other law enforcement systems to determine if 
the information can be attributed to any suspects in an open or closed 
law enforcement investigation. If the information submitted by the 
respondent is matched with other reports in the CATCH database or law 
enforcement records indicating the possibility of a serial offender, 
the MCIO investigator will contact the Service SAPR program 
representative and inform them of the findings.
    Service SAPR personnel will then contact the respondent to 
ascertain the respondent's willingness to make the report unrestricted 
(if restricted) and/or report the sexual assault incident to the MCIO 
for the purpose of participating in a law enforcement investigation. If 
the respondent agrees, a full investigation will be initiated. In a 
full investigation, the respondent conducts an interview with an MCIO 
criminal investigator, wherein the respondent describes the allegation 
and provides additional information needed by the MCIO to conduct an 
investigation. This full investigation may include, but is not limited 
to, an interview of the suspect(s), interview of additional witnesses, 
examination and documentation of the crime scene, reviews of personnel 
files, medical records, and other pertinent records, criminal history 
checks, and forensic laboratory analysis. The respondent may also be 
asked to provide sworn testimony in judicial or administrative 
proceedings. If the respondent declines to unrestrict their report and/
or participate in a law enforcement investigation, no further action 
will be taken with the information collected within the CATCH database. 
The successful end result of this information collection is the 
identification of serial sexual assault offenders that otherwise would 
have gone undetected if the information had remained restricted from 
MCIO access.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households.
    Frequency: On occasion.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    OMB Desk Officer: Ms. Jasmeet Seehra.
    DOD Clearance Officer: Mr. Reginald Lucas.

    Dated: October 15, 2024.
Aaron T. Siegel,
Alternate OSD Federal Register Liaison Officer, Department of Defense.
[FR Doc. 2024-24144 Filed 10-17-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6001-FR-P