Jul 19, 2007 11:00 pm US/Eastern
I-Team: Military Recruitment Follow-Up
by Jim Osman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
A
CBS 3 I-Team investigation prompted action by the U.S. Senate. The I-Team's hidden camera report earlier this year showed military recruiters misleading young recruits.
Investigative Reporter Jim Osman has a follow up on the story.
Surveillance video has long been used to spot criminal activity or to document police conduct.
But now the government may use surveillance cameras to hold military recruiters accountable.
Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey supports a congressional committee proposal to put surveillance cameras inside military recruiting stations to monitor activities of recruiters.
Senator Casey told
Jim Osman during an interview in Washington, D.C., "If it takes cameras or tough tactics to investigate these people then we should do that."
Casey said the pressure put on recruiters to enlist new soldiers to send off to places like Iraq shouldn't be a scapegoat for deception or abuse.
The Senator said, "There's no excuse for this, a lot of people have pressure in their lives people in the military deal with pressure all the time and the overwhelming majority handle that pressure appropriately."
What caught the attention of the U.S. Senate was our CBS 3 I-Team undercover investigation which exposed recruiters who were stretching the rules and the truth to get our undercover producer to sign up for military service.
Half of the military recruiters our producer spoke to misled him or tried to bend the rules.
And a common refrain: being a soldier in Iraq was as dangerous as everyday life. Statistics show that is false.
One recruiter told our undercover producer, "Your chances of dying is like being out here. You know what I'm saying ... you going to die. You could fall off your bed and that's it."
The Defense Department has until early next year to develop a proposal for the surveillance cameras.
Senator Casey said the cameras may also discourage male recruiters from sexually harassing young female recruits, which also has been a problem.
The Senate Armed Services Committee proposing the cameras said it's pushing the idea to give potential recruits and their parents peace of mind.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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