If you are a service member who has been sexually assaulted, you have two ways to report it: a restricted report, which is confidential and connects you to medical care, advocacy, and counseling without starting an investigation or notifying your chain of command, or an unrestricted report, which notifies your command and opens a criminal investigation. Those are the military sexual assault reporting options, and the choice you make on a single form controls almost everything that follows. Both options are available to active-duty members, National Guard and Reserve members on active duty or inactive-duty training, and adult military dependents eligible for care.1Executive Services Directorate. DOD Directive 6495.01 – Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) Program The Army runs its program under the name SHARP; the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force run theirs as SAPR. The reporting options work the same way across all of them.
Restricted Reporting
A restricted report lets you disclose an assault and receive a forensic medical exam, mental health support, and victim advocacy without triggering a criminal investigation or notifying your commander. Only three people can accept one: a Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC), a Victim Advocate (VA), or a healthcare provider.2Department of Defense. DoD Instruction 6495.02, Volume 1 – Adult Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program Procedures They cannot pass what you told them to law enforcement or your command outside a few narrow exceptions.
The practical effect: no investigation opens, no one is questioned, and your commander does not learn about the incident. You still get a SARC and a VA assigned to you for ongoing support, and your conversations with them are protected by a legal privilege under Military Rule of Evidence 514, meaning they can refuse to disclose what you told them at a court-martial.
Two things worth knowing before you rely on the restricted option. First, telling a chaplain or a military attorney about an assault is a privileged conversation, but it is not the same as filing a restricted report and does not by itself connect you to SAPR services or preserve forensic evidence; you have to contact a SARC separately.2Department of Defense. DoD Instruction 6495.02, Volume 1 – Adult Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program Procedures Second, if you go to a civilian hospital or civilian police first, civilian mandatory-reporting laws may override the military confidentiality protections, and the restricted option may not hold. To preserve it, report at a military treatment facility whenever possible.3eCFR. 32 CFR 103.6 – Reporting Options and Sexual Assault Reporting Procedures
Confidentiality is strong but not absolute. A SARC or VA is required to break it when necessary to prevent or reduce a serious and imminent threat to someone’s health or safety.
Unrestricted Reporting
An unrestricted report notifies your chain of command and starts a formal criminal investigation through your branch’s Military Criminal Investigative Organization: the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID), the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), or the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI).4Department of Defense Office of Inspector General. Evaluation of the Military Criminal Investigative Organizations Adult Sexual Assault Investigations Investigators collect and analyze evidence, interview witnesses, and build the case file.
This is the only path that can lead to criminal accountability for the person who assaulted you. The prosecution decision no longer sits with a commander. Under 10 U.S.C. § 824a, a Special Trial Counsel holds exclusive authority to refer sexual assault charges to a court-martial, enter into a plea agreement, or dismiss charges, and a commander cannot override that call in either direction.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 824a – Special Trial Counsel
Filing unrestricted also unlocks two protections designed to keep you safe while the case moves. You can request an expedited transfer to a different unit or installation under 10 U.S.C. § 673 to get away from the person who assaulted you; commanders are required to act quickly, and a denial can be reviewed by a flag or general officer.6Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office. Expedited Transfer Your commander can also issue a Military Protective Order on DD Form 2873, directing the accused to avoid all contact with you; a written copy goes to you and to installation law enforcement within 24 hours, and if either party lives off base, civilian law enforcement is notified so they can help enforce it.7eCFR. 32 CFR 635.19 – Protection Orders Violating an MPO carries consequences under the UCMJ.
What Changes Between the Two Options
The reporting choice controls what happens to your forensic evidence. You can request a Sexual Assault Forensic Examination (SAFE) either way. Under a restricted report, the kit is labeled with a case number rather than your name and stored securely for five years from the date you signed your form; no investigator touches it during that window.3eCFR. 32 CFR 103.6 – Reporting Options and Sexual Assault Reporting Procedures Under an unrestricted report, the evidence goes immediately to your branch’s criminal investigators for laboratory analysis and becomes part of the active case file.
Command notification, investigation, MPOs, expedited transfers, and prosecution all require the unrestricted path. Confidentiality, time to think, and access to care without scrutiny are the trade-off you make by choosing restricted.
How to File: The DD Form 2910
Both options are formalized on the same document, DD Form 2910, the Victim Reporting Preference Statement used across every branch.8Department of Defense. DD Form 2910 – Victim Reporting Preference Statement You complete it in person with a SARC or Victim Advocate at your installation’s program office. The form records your choice, details about the incident (date, time, location, and the alleged offender’s identity if known), and your acknowledgment that you have been briefed on your rights, including your right to a Special Victims’ Counsel. Both you and the SARC sign and date it.
SARCs and VAs are available around the clock. If you are not sure where to start, you can also reach the DOD Safe Helpline anonymously at 877-995-5247, chat at safehelpline.org, or text your zip code or installation name to 55-247 for local resources. The Safe Helpline does not share information with the DOD or your chain of command, and calling it does not create a restricted or unrestricted report; it is a place to talk through options before you decide.
Changing a Restricted Report to Unrestricted
You can convert a restricted report to an unrestricted report at any time. What creates a practical deadline is the evidence: your SAFE kit is stored for five years from the date you signed the DD Form 2910, and after that it may be destroyed.3eCFR. 32 CFR 103.6 – Reporting Options and Sexual Assault Reporting Procedures Your SARC will contact you at the one-year mark to ask whether you want to change your preference. To convert, contact a SARC before the storage window closes; the branch’s criminal investigators then take custody of the evidence and open the case.
The change only runs one direction. Once an unrestricted investigation is underway, you cannot convert it back to restricted.
Your Right to a Special Victims’ Counsel
Federal law gives you a military attorney whose only client is you. Under 10 U.S.C. § 1044e, a Special Victims’ Counsel (SVC) or Victims’ Legal Counsel (VLC), depending on the branch, is assigned to any eligible victim of a sex-related offense, and this attorney does not work for the government or the prosecution.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 1044e – Special Victims Counsel for Victims of Sex-Related Offenses No one in your chain of command or the accused’s can influence their advice.
You are entitled to an SVC or VLC whether you file restricted, unrestricted, or nothing at all, though the scope of services is broader once an unrestricted report exists. They can walk you through the legal consequences of each reporting option, represent you in court-martial proceedings, advise you on collateral misconduct concerns like underage drinking or fraternization that may have surrounded the incident, and help you exercise your rights to expedited transfers or protective orders.10Navy JAG Corps. Victims Legal Counsel Program (VLCP) FAQ Your conversations are attorney-client privileged. Contacting an SVC or VLC before you commit to a reporting option puts you in a far better position, whichever option you eventually pick.
The CATCH Program for Anonymous Suspect Information
The Catch a Serial Offender (CATCH) program lets you submit information about a suspect anonymously, including if you filed restricted, if you filed unrestricted but the suspect is unknown to investigators, or if you never filed at all.11Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (DoD SAPRO). CATCH A SERIAL OFFENDER (CATCH) PROGRAM A SARC gives you secure login credentials, and you enter suspect details yourself. The system does not store anything identifying you, does not capture your IP address, and does not track your phone.
If your entry potentially matches another entry or an open case, your local SARC will try to reach you within 30 days to schedule a private meeting where a notification official explains the match.12Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR). CATCH Program Procedures You then have 30 days to decide whether to participate in the investigation, which for a restricted reporter would mean converting to unrestricted. If you do nothing, your entry stays active and anonymous, and you can opt out at any point. Entries are kept for 10 years.
Retaliation Is Prohibited
Retaliation against someone who reports a sexual assault is prohibited under DOD policy, and it covers more than obvious punishment. Reprisal (withholding a favorable action or taking an unfavorable one because you reported), ostracism (deliberate social or professional exclusion), and maltreatment or restriction (including being told not to file, or being discouraged from contacting the Inspector General or Congress) all fall under it.13Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPR). Retaliation Prevention and Response
If it happens, you can file a complaint through the DOD Inspector General Hotline at 1-800-424-9098, online, by mail, or by fax. The window is generally one year from the retaliatory action; longer than that and you will need to explain the delay.14DoD Office of Inspector General. Service Members – How to File a Whistleblower Reprisal Complaint Document dates, names, and specifics as they happen; that record makes a complaint far more actionable later.