Lawmakers order military courts to track race of accused troops amid bias concerns

The race, ethnicity and gender of service members accused of crimes must be tracked so that the armed services can root out possible disparities in the military justice system, according to the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act just passed by Congress.

The legislation, expected to be signed by President Donald Trump, calls for reforms after a government investigation found that the rate at which men and some minorities were investigated and tried for crimes was disproportionate with their representation in the military.

The NDAA will require Defense Secretary Mark Esper within 180 days after the act is signed into law to direct the services to detect and address the disparities.

The services must record the race, ethnicity and gender of the victim and the accused in every court-martial, and that data must be included in annual military justice reports, the NDAA states.

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