More states are tracking rape kits. But key support for survivors may be slipping away

By Amanda Hern ndez Stateline org After years of pressure over lost or untested sexual assault kits a growing number of states are adopting systems to track the kits giving survivors a way to follow their evidence through the justice process Related Articles Currently in History June Apple releases the first iPhone to consumers At this globetrotting Catholic priest still bakes pies enjoys opera and celebrates daily Mass Battenfeld Supreme Court slaps down activist judges Democratic AGs This day in History June Franz Ferdinand assassinated New York Islanders choose Erie defenseman Matthew Schaefer with No pick in NHL draft But despite nearly million in federal patronage since backlogs persist and a few states still lack basic oversight And now advocates fear such financial promotion is on shaky ground There are an estimated untested kits across the country according to records collected by the Joyful Heart Foundation a nonprofit advocacy group Although the exact number of backlogged kits nationwide is unknown a summary from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Provision that summarized existing research located backlog estimates ranging from to kits After a sexual assault a survivor may choose to undergo a forensic exam during which a trained vitality care professional collects evidence over the class of several hours That evidence which may include clothing photos of injuries blood urine and DNA samples is compiled into what s commonly known as a rape kit or sexual assault kit The kit is then sent to a crime lab for further testing Test results are sometimes returned to investigators who check for DNA matches in national or state databases A match could connect the circumstance to other sexual assaults or link a suspect to another crime But processing a single kit can take days months or even years depending on when they are submitted and how much other work crime labs have In specific states there are no laws requiring law enforcement to send rape kits to a lab within a specific time frame or mandating how hastily those kits must be tested Survivors are often left in the dark They may not know if their kit was tested whether a suspect was identified or if their situation is moving forward That silence the uncertainty about what happened to the kit has long been the norm in various parts of the country We have betrayed at least a generation of survivors in the way that the criminal justice system and the larger masses have responded to sexual assault announced Rachel Lovell an associate professor of criminology and the director of the Criminology Research Center at Cleveland State University Lovell has conducted extensive research on the impact of untested rape kits in Ohio The goal of tracking systems is straightforward bring transparency to a process that for decades left survivors without answers These systems allow casualties to log in and track the status of their kits from collection to testing to storage and offer law enforcement agencies a tool to identify and prevent testing backlogs and strengthen criminal investigations At least states and Washington D C have established or committed to establishing a rape kit tracking system according to the End the Backlog website run by the Joyful Heart Foundation The foundation supports survivors of sexual assault domestic violence and child abuse Two more states New Jersey and Pennsylvania publicized plans this year to build their own tracking systems In New Jersey a new law gives the attorney general s office until Aug to set up the tracking system Pennsylvania agents are preparing to launch a statewide inventory of kits to better understand the scope of the backlog before advancing their system A handful of other states have also enacted or are considering statute to promotion their sexual assault kit tracking programs In Arizona for example Democratic Gov Katie Hobbs signed a bill into law in May requiring all police departments in the state to use a system called Track-Kit The new law primarily affects the Phoenix Police Department which opted out of using the system in That department is expected to launch the platform later this year At the federal level aid for kit testing and tracking has often come from the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative or SAKI which has awarded nearly million to grantees including local and state agencies across states since But the activity s future has not perpetually been certain In January the federal Office of Management and Budget had listed the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative as a venture whose funding would be frozen before walking back the widespread freeze amid legal challenges President Donald Trump s proposed budget for fiscal year would maintain funding for the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative at million according to a new record from the nonpartisan think tank Council on Criminal Justice But a separate round of federal Department of Justice grant cuts in April has raised concerns about the stability of broader promotion services for survivors That round of cuts affected a variety of grant programs including domestic violence shelters trauma counseling legal assistance and hospital advocacy The timing is especially concerning advocates say as casualties of crime face growing obstacles to accessing state-provided encouragement In various states casualties seeking financial compensation encounter long delays burdensome paperwork or are disqualified entirely by narrow eligibility rules Police investigations and funding In jurisdictions that have worked to clear their backlogs testing sexual assault kits has helped identify serial offenders solve cold cases and connect assaults or other crimes to the same perpetrator Nationwide testing supported by the federal Sexual Assault Kit Initiative has contributed to at least convictions Still these types of crimes are vastly underreported to police Rapes and sexual assaults are notoriously intricate to investigate and prosecute declared Lovell of Cleveland State University But testing all rape kits can reveal patterns of criminal behavior over time and provide deeper insight into how when and to whom these crimes are happening ultimately helping improve endorsement and occurrence outcomes for survivors By prosecuting sex offenders you can also work to address violent crime more generally and solve past or future crimes with the addition of evidence and DNA Lovell reported Stateline In her research on untested rape kits in Ohio Lovell has revealed that since when the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative launched cases overseen by the Cleveland Police Department have been more likely to move forward in the investigative and prosecutorial process with fewer being labeled as unfounded Police reports she explained also have become more detailed and trauma informed The initiative itself may not be the sole reason for these changes Lovell declared Other factors such as departmental plan changes or officer training may also have played a role Although SAKI grants remain one of the primary sources of patronage for testing backlogged kits and building tracking systems communities may face challenges sustaining progress once the federal dollars run out Capt Tim Hegarty division commander of the Office of Professional Standards at the Glynn County Police Department in Georgia noted local agencies must push through feasible funding cuts It falls back on agencies to do the job that they say they re going to do even when the money has dried up Hegarty declared in an interview Doesn t matter who s in the presidential administration Hegarty added that numerous departments across the country are still catching up when it comes to interviewing casualties with sensitivity and analyzing sex crimes Law enforcement really has not advanced a great deal when it comes to dealing with these types of crimes Hegarty mentioned It s not the universal language when it comes to policing across the country New statewide tracking systems Other states are looking to strengthen existing programs through new oversight measures and stricter processing timelines Maine is one of the states without a statewide rape kit tracking system But state lawmakers are considering a bill that would create one and require law enforcement agencies and the state s crime lab to inventory and test backlogged kits The bill passed the House in mid-June and is now under consideration by the Senate Appropriations Committee In Colorado Democratic Gov Jared Polis signed a bill in early June aimed at improving the state s limit to process sexual assault kits The new law establishes the Colorado Sexual Assault Forensic Physiological Evidence Review Board which will evaluate the state s biological legal and criminal responses to sexual assault The governor and attorney general have until Aug to appoint board members A preliminary summary is due to lawmakers by Dec The law also strengthens oversight of kit processing timelines Law enforcement agencies must now provide survivors with updates on the status of their kits every days It also sets a new -day goal for crime labs to process forensic therapeutic evidence shortening the current -day goal As of May kits were backlogged with an estimated testing turnaround time of about a year and a half according to the state s dashboard Alaska which launched its statewide rape kit tracking system in considered a bill this year that would have expedited processing timelines for sexual assault kits The bill passed the House without opposition but failed to advance through the Senate before the legislative session ended in May Although the number of untested kits has significantly declined since the state began inventorying them in kits remained untested at the state s crime lab in up from the previous year but well below the recorded in In Georgia lawmakers considered a similar bill that would have established new rules for collecting testing and tracking evidence from sexual assault kits The bill did not advance before the legislature adjourned in April The Georgia Bureau of Research released in December that kits were tested between July and June with kits still awaiting testing Another older cases submitted before were flagged for DNA testing of which had been tested as of June States Newsroom Visit at stateline org Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC