HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah — The U.S. Air Force has changed course and will begin scheduling Utah families to watch video depicting possible “maltreatment” of their children at a base daycare.
“The Office of Special Investigation has reached a point in its investigation of allegations of maltreatment at the Hill Air Force Base Child Development Center (CDC), where the 75th Air Base Wing… may share closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of the incidents with the respective families,” read an email those families received last week.
The 75th Air Base Wing administers Hill Air Force Base. The name of the wing commander, Col. Jeffrey Holland, was on the bottom of the email.
A spokesman for the 75th shared the email with FOX 13. He declined interview requests.
Last year, Holland informed families that 37 children may have been abused at the CDC. Only a few parents were allowed to see video of the alleged abuse.
Parents who have not seen video, and who told FOX 13 News about their conversations with investigators, said they had been told the investigations had to be finished first, and even then the families may have to file requests under the Freedom of Information Act if they wanted to review the footage.
“We understand your desire to view the footage and are working to make it available as quickly as possible,” Holland’s email to families said. “We will begin scheduling viewing opportunities within the next 10 days.
“However, it will take significant time to prepare all footage for viewing and some families may not have an opportunity to view footage for several months.
“Providing a safe and enriching environment for your children is the top priority of our CDC and this case remains a high priority for the Air Force.”
No one has been charged with any crimes related to the abuse investigation. Hill Air Force Base is one of multiple U.S. military bases where CDC staff have been suspected of abusing children in recent years, but where parents have struggled for details.
“Bottom line is the Pentagon does not have good policy when it comes to transparency,” said Steve Beynon, a reporter for Military.com.
Beynon and colleagues at the news outlet have been reporting on problems at CDCs.
“On a military daycares,” Beynon said, “they necessarily don't have to tell parents when their kids are abused or neglected, or were hurt in anyway. And when parents do find out about that, they face enormous hurdles to get just the most basic information.”
Beynon suspects the Air Force and the 75th are making video available now due to pressure from parents and the FOX 13 News reporting.
“A year is way too long for parents to just get basic information on what happened to their kid,” Beynon said.
Some parents have relayed to FOX 13 News the verbal descriptions they’ve received from investigators. Those descriptions include kids, some of them infants, being picked up or put down harshly — sometimes by their limbs — with heads ricocheting off bedding.