Proposals would speed up rape kit analysis
A movement to quicken processing of untested kits is getting a boost by a pair of prospective state bills and a new policy proposal
Every year, untested rape kits — estimated in the thousands — have sat idly in crime labs, hospitals and police agencies around the state while untold victims wait for justice.
Lawmakers in both Sacramento and the Bay Area want to change that with new legislation and stricter local rules that would ensure every rape kit gets analyzed more quickly.
County Supervisor Cindy Chavez on Tuesday asked the District Attorney’s Office and county crime lab to evaluate her proposal that forensic evidence gathered from sexual assault victims, typically in what are known as SART kits, be processed within 30 days of being collected. The current average processing time in the county is 94 days.
“One of the most important elements of getting this work done in a timely fashion is that it demonstrates respect and acknowledges the trauma of the victim,” Chavez said.
Ilse Knecht, director of policy and advocacy for the Joyful Heart Foundation, a national victim-advocacy group, said local and statewide efforts like these have led to anecdotal accounts of more victims coming forward to report sexual assaults.
“If survivors feel, ‘I’m going to report this and it’s going to matter,’ they feel more comfortable reporting to the system,” Knecht said.
“One of the most important elements of getting this work done in a timely fashion is that it demonstrates respect and acknowledges the trauma of the victim.” — County Supervisor Cindy Chavez
Currently, state guidelines urge police agencies, with the victim’s consent, to submit the kits for crime-lab analysis within 20 days of collection, and process information like suspect DNA profiles to law-enforcement databases within 120 days.
Under SB 1449, a bill introduced earlier this month by state Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, those time frames would be a requirement. Leyva, who also led the effort to remove the statute of limitations for rape in California, hopes that her bill, as well as other parallel efforts, will instill confidence in more rape and sexual assault victims to report their crimes to police.
“If I’m a victim or survivor, I know my rape kit will be tested quickly and timely, and justice will be served,” Leyva said.
The senator noted that her proposal also includes allotting $2 million in state funds to the California Department of Justice to help local police agencies meet the new requirements under her bill. That dovetails with a bill passed last year by Campbell assemblyman Evan Low that allows taxpayers to donate a portion of their income tax returns to help fund kit processing.
“We’re not giving them an unfunded mandate,” Leyva said.
Some agencies, like the San Jose Police Department, have already been treating the existing guidelines, which have been in place since 2016, as compulsory.
A companion bill in the state Assembly, AB 3118, authored by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, would compel a statewide audit by 2019 of police agencies, hospitals, crime labs and any other facility that handles or stores SART kits to get a definitive count of the backlog of untested kits in California, a number that currently only exists in estimates. San Jose police, for instance, only has rape-kit totals going back to 2012.
The Joyful Heart Foundation, a national advocacy group combating sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse, helped craft the Chiu and Leyva bills, and estimates that the state backlog numbers at more than 13,000 kits, based on available records and public-records requests. Knecht believes the actual total is likely thousands more, and is chronicled at endthebacklog.org.
“An inventory like this has never happened in California,” Knecht said. “An audit was done in Texas in 2011 that found over 20,000 kits, and they’re still finding more.”
Nationally, the number of untested rape kits is estimated to be as high as 400,000, according to the foundation.
Chiu successfully pushed through a related bill last year that compels law-enforcement agencies to submit annual SART kit data for a centralized DOJ database, starting this year. AB 3118, however, would require police agencies to report all previous backlogs of untested rape kits.
“Survivors of sexual assault have known for years that there has been a significant backlog, and that there are many women who have not received justice,” Chiu said. “The recent #MeToo movement has shone a spotlight on continuing injustices in the systems.”
Both proposed bills have been championed by Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, who has long made eliminating the rape-kit backlog a priority for her office.
“Great strides have been made around the nation, the state, and in Alameda County, but there remains more to accomplish. I am grateful to Assemblymember David Chiu and Senator Connie Leyva for their leadership on this important public safety legislation,” O’Malley said in a statement. “The prompt testing and effective tracking of rape kits will bring justice to sexual assault victims throughout our state.”
In Santa Clara County, crime-lab technicians and staffers have steadily brought down the average processing time from 567 days in 2013 to the current 94 days. Chavez’s ambitious 30-day recommendation for Santa Clara County will be revisited at the March 20 board of supervisors meeting, where the DA and crime lab are expected to detail the resources needed to end the county’s SART kit backlog by July 2019.
Advocacy groups have seen an uptick in victims coming forward to report sexual assault in recent years, and efforts like the rape-kit legislation boosts their trust in a criminaljustice system that they say has been lacking historically in the arena.
In San Jose, reported rape cases have steadily risen over the past decade, from 217 cases in 2007 to 571 last year, according to SJPD and FBI uniform crime reporting figures and recently compiled by San Jose Inside. The cause behind the rise likely stems from a combination of more incidents but also increased reporting, advocates and police say.
Knecht says anecdotal evidence in various parts of the country suggests increased support and confidence from victims that they will be believed. Tanis Crosby, CEO of YWCA Silicon Valley, said her organization has observed a steady increase in calls to its crisis-support line dating back to 2015.
“It is my hope that the increase means that survivors know they will be believed, that they are supported, and that they have choices,” Crosby said. “Behind every rape kit is a survivor, who has a right to confidentiality, and who has the right to a rape kit being tested if they choose.”