Justice for rape survivors is unfinished business. Here’s what Washington state should do in 2020
Sexual assault survivors belong to an exclusive club nobody wants to be part of. They alone know how it feels to run a gauntlet of trauma beyond the horror of the assault itself.
To sit for hours-long interviews with cops, nurses and other well-meaning strangers. To agonize over a desire for justice versus the anxiety of being dragged through the legal system. To endure the awful prodding of a forensic exam after one’s flesh becomes a crime scene.
What’s worse, biological samples collected from some survivors during these exams don’t have to meet strict safekeeping standards. There’s no guarantee that so-called “unreported” sexual assault kits will be preserved and tracked; they may just as easily be misplaced or destroyed.
Lost wallets, jewelry and bicycles might get higher priority at your local police station. Imagine how that must feel.
Legislators now gathered in Olympia have an opportunity to fix this problem. They should waste no time doing so in the 60-day session that started this week.
To be fair, Washington leaders have made great strides in reforming sexual-assault evidence-collection practices. Since 2015, they’ve chipped away at a shameful backlog of nearly 10,000 untested rape kits. Last year, the Legislature unanimously approved new rules and deadlines to complete DNA analysis on those kits; information is then uploaded to a federal database to help crack unsolved sex crimes.
Crucial capital investments were made, too — first and foremost, the creation of an advanced state DNA-testing lab in Vancouver. Scheduled to open this summer, the lab promises to clear the backlog by the end of 2021, while also meeting Washington’s new standard to test every new rape kit within 45 days of collection.
All this is good news, says Rep. Tina Orwall, D-Des Moines. Now state leaders must reach for the next frontier.
Orwall is sponsoring House Bill 2318, which would establish procedures for handling unreported sexual assault kits. In these cases, victims have not yet decided their next step. They may delay reporting to law enforcement for a variety of reasons, such as financial dependence on the assailant, social stigma or fear that they won’t be believed.
But without an open investigation, unreported rape kits aren’t considered evidence; thus, police currently don’t have to preserve them. They may (or may not) be kept at the hospital where the exam took place. There is no chain of custody.
Is it any wonder many rape victims feel defenseless, confused and betrayed?
One survivor who testified before the House Public Safety Committee Tuesday said it’s “absurd” that police take a hands-off approach to unreported kits, especially since it’s common for them to store other items.
“At the moment, bicycles that have been lost are receiving more care by the police,” said Leah Griffin of Seattle, adding that such treatment is “retraumatizing and offensive.”
The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs opposes HB 2318’s storage requirements; the bill says unreported kits must be transferred to local police departments and preserved at least 20 years.
Yes, this would burden law enforcement agencies that are outgrowing their facilities. The Puyallup Police Department, for example, already rents space for evidence storage.
But if crime victims are to win justice, communities must accept some cost and inconvenience. For Puyallup, that could mean incorporating additional storage space into plans for a long-awaited new public safety building.
Orwall’s bill would make other changes, as well. The definition of a sexual assault kit would be clarified to include all evidence collected from a survivor — such as hair and urine samples, clothing and photographs — which are sometimes lost or scattered. Another provision would require any convicted offender who’s not immediately taken into custody to provide a DNA sample before leaving the courtroom.
Washington has come a long way these past five years, bringing more hope to sexual assault survivors and less despair that the criminal justice system has abandoned them. Let’s not squander that momentum now.
This story was originally published January 17, 2020 at 5:30 AM.