Austin Sexual Assault Advocates Demand Answers for Rape Kit Negligence
Disconcerting reports about the current status of APD’s ever-growing rape kit backlog has prompted Travis County’s Sexual Assault Resource and Recovery Team (SARRT) to draft a letter to Mayor Steve Adler, Interim City Manager Elaine Hart, and Interim Police Chief Brian Manley requesting immediate clarification about the holdup.
According to Emily LeBlanc, the project's local co-chair, APD had told SARRT last summer (shortly after the lab closed) that the Department of Public Safety would both store APD’s DNA evidence and test what wasn’t sent over to private labs. But that hasn’t happened. Instead, as she notes, DPS “is warehousing the evidence while APD formulates another plan.” The backlog has since grown to over 4,000 cases, most of which pertain to sexual assault.
Prior to the lab’s closure, sexual assault survivors who wished to prosecute were subject to a three-year process just to get their case to trial. Now, the duration of time is no longer predictable. SAFE Response Coordinator Kristen Lenau told the Chronicle: “We no longer tell survivors how long the wait will be before their kit gets tested. We just have no idea.”
SARRT, a community response team comprised of sexual assault advocates, law enforcement, and prosecutors, exists to create a more cohesive response to sexual assault by working with multiple agencies in charge of aiding rape survivors and prosecuting their attackers.
Read more: http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2017-03-01/sexual-assault-advocates-demand-answers-for-rape-kit-negligence/
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