Rape kit task force nears final report
BY DARLA SLIPKE Dig Team dslipke@oklahoman.com
A task force leading efforts to reform how Oklahoma handles rape kits is recommending protocols for testing kits collected in the future, how to best address the more than 7,000 untested kits identified through a statewide audit and how long law enforcement agencies should keep rape kits moving forward.
The Oklahoma Task Force on Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence, a group that includes law enforcement officials, a rape survivor, victims' advocates and legal experts, has been working for nearly a year to gather data and develop recommendations. The task force must submit a final report and recommendations to Gov. Mary Fallin and legislative leaders by Sunday.
During a meeting Monday, the group reviewed a draft of its report but did not finalize the document. The task force authorized the chairwoman to make some changes the group discussed before forwarding the report to state leaders. Task force members will have an opportunity to review those changes and offer feedback before the final report is submitted.
In April 2017, the governor created the task force and ordered a statewide audit of untested rape kits. She directed law enforcement agencies to report their number of untested rape kits by Dec. 30, 2017, but that deadline was later extended until mid-February 2018. The task force set a May 31 cutoff date for agencies to be included in its final report.
A total of 312 law enforcement agencies in Oklahoma reported 7,270 untested sexual assault kits. Another 120 law enforcement agencies didn't respond by the cutoff date, although two of those agencies have since reported.
The untested kits that law enforcement agencies identified are kits that officers chose not to submit to a laboratory for analysis. As part of the audit, law enforcement agencies were asked but not required to report why the kits weren't tested. Some of the most common reasons they reported were "lack of victim cooperation" and the district attorney declined to file charges.
When Fallin announced the initiative last year, her office estimated that only a quarter of rape kits are tested.
As far as recommended protocols for the testing of rape kits moving forward, the task force likely will recommend that law enforcement agencies submit all kits for testing if the victim has consented to the testing and is participating in the investigation, as well as for all cases in which the victim has consented to testing and the reported offender is a stranger, regardless of whether the victim is participating in the investigation.
If a victim has not reported the sexual assault to law enforcement, then the kit should not be tested, according to the task force's draft report. However, those kits should be preserved for the possibility of future testing.
People who have been sexually assaulted can undergo an exam to receive important medical care and collect any DNA evidence left behind from the assault. The nurse or doctor who conducts the exam preserves the evidence in a sexual assault evidence collection kit, commonly known as a rape kit. Victims can choose to have an exam done without reporting the crime to law enforcement.
Currently, there are no specific statutes addressing the maintenance and preservation of sexual assault kits. As a result, different agencies follow different protocols regarding how long sexual assault kits are kept.
The task force is recommending that Oklahoma adopt a national best practice standard of requiring law enforcement agencies to maintain all sexual assault kits for a minimum of 50 years, or the statute of limitations, whichever is greater.
The task force also is recommending that the state implement a prioritization model for the testing of previously unsubmitted kits. The state's available resources would not allow for shipping all of the untested kits to a forensic laboratory for testing without prioritization, the task force noted in its report.
Under the proposed prioritization model, the task force recommended looking at factors that include whether the case is within the statute of limitations and whether the victim and offender knew each other. The task force recommended that kits not be tested if the victim didn't report to law enforcement or requested the kit not be tested. The task force also recommended kits not be tested if the offender has already been convicted for that crime.
The recommendation to test unsubmitted kits may create a backlog at the forensic laboratories that test those kits, depending on how many kits are submitted and under what time period they are submitted.
The task force created a subcommittee comprised of representatives from the three forensic laboratories in Oklahoma to develop a plan for accepting those kits to provide to the task force by Dec. 1.
Other recommendations the task force discussed include the development of one standardized sexual assault kit to be used statewide. Currently, three different kits are used in Oklahoma. The task force has formed a subcommittee to develop and implement one standardized kit for use in Oklahoma by Jan. 1, 2020.
The task force plans to continue meeting, and the group discussed expanding its membership.