Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced in a press conference the results of a statewide inventory of all untested sexual assault kits as part of his SAFE Kits Initiative.
“Earlier this year we announced our Safe Kits initiative, a serious undertaking to clear out the backlog of untested sexual assault kits in the state of Missouri,” said Attorney General Schmitt in a press release. “The work that Judge M. Keithley Williams and team have undertaken has been exhaustive, thorough and provides an accurate view of all of the untested sexual assault kits in the state of Missouri.”
“It’s important to remember, these kits are not just numbers. They are not footnotes to the reporting of a crime. They represent real human beings, who have suffered, confronted their fears, reported the assault and submitted a kit. A kit that may have been put on a shelf and remained untested. Until now.”
According to the release by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), when Judge Williams was announced as the head of the SAFE Kit Initiative, the inventory was divided into six geographic regions and a $2.8 million grant was provided by the Bureau of Justice Assistance.
The Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) began in 2015 and is a nationwide undertaking to help state and local jurisdictions across the country inventory and test sexual assault forensic evidence (SAFE) kits, upload eligible offender DNA profiles into a national database, investigate and prosecute cases in which offender DNA profiles match, or “hit,” against existing records in the database, and develop procedural and evidence tracking capacity to prevent future backlogs.
When the SAFE Kits initiative inventory report was released, it revealed the following results in regards to Taney County:
Branson Police Department:
45 untested reported kits
0 untested unreported kits
1 previously tested kits
Cox Medical Center Branson:
0 untested reported kits
3 untested unreported kits
0 previously tested kits
Hollister Police Department:
2 untested reported kits
0 untested unreported kits
0 previously tested kits
Taney County Sheriff’s Office:
16 untested reported kits
0 untested unreported kits
0 previously tested kits
Taney County Totals:
63 untested reported kits
3 untested unreported kits
1 previously tested kits
According to the Branson Police Department, on July 15, the State Attorney General presented the department with a Law Enforcement Community Partner award for their “timely and accurate” accounting of sexual assault kits in their SAFE Kit inventory initiative project. The Branson Police evidence unit was able to account for 100% of the sexual assault kits reported to be in inventory.
“I am proud of our recognition by the Attorney General’s Office for our handling of rape kits,” said Branson Police Chief Jeff Matthews. “We take this issue very serious and have policies and procedures in place to protect and safe guard these rape kits. We have never withheld a kit that should have been tested. We also never discard or destroy any sexual assault kits. We hold them for life.
“I appreciate the work the Attorney General is doing across the state to ensure all departments are held to the same standard.”
According to the Branson Police Department, at the time of the audit on June 13, 2019 the department had 79 sexual assault kits in evidence. Forty-six kits in their custody had not yet been tested.
This is due to victims failing to follow through with investigations, refusing to prosecute, the county prosecutor declining to prosecute and false reports.
“In the past, the crime lab would not test sexual assault kits where the victim declined prosecution or the prosecutor declined to prosecute the case,” according to a Branson Police Department statement. “Because of this, these kits were never sent to the lab as no further court action would be taken.
“However, the Branson Police Department has adjusted this practice to now send all kits to the crime lab.”
According to the SAFE Kits Initiative Inventory Report, once a SAFE kit is used to collect evidence, the victim decides whether to complete a police report that would then initiate a criminal investigation. When a victim completes a police report, they thereby consent to participation in the criminal justice system and the SAFE kit is referred to as a reported kit.
The local law enforcement agency investigating the crime will then retrieve the kit from the collecting entity. When a victim decides not to file a police report at the time of evidence collection, the kit is referred to as an unreported kit.
While law enforcement may collect the unreported kit, common practice in Missouri is for unreported kits to remain at the collecting entity until the victim decides to file a police report or the kit is destroyed.
The next step in the SAFE kit lifecycle is for law enforcement to submit the kit to a forensic lab for examination, according to the report. While the Kansas City and St. Louis regions have dedicated labs, the majority of law enforcement agencies in the state use the MSHP crime lab for DNA testing.
Labs typically return SAFE kits to the law enforcement agency that submitted the kit once testing is complete and the kits will then often remain at the law enforcement agency until a criminal case is adjudicated or a judicial order of destruction for the kit is received. In some cases the local prosecutor’s office will take possession of a kit in preparation for a trial.
According to the release by the AGO, as the scale of the issue became apparent, the AGO began a preliminary review of the prevalence of untested SAFE kits across Missouri in Nov. 2017 and distributed a survey to organizations involved in the processing of SAFE kits.
The AGO received responses from 266 law enforcement agencies, five crime labs and 66 healthcare providers and the survey found 4,889 untested SAFE kits spread across law enforcement agencies and healthcare providers in Missouri. These findings led to the AGO applying for and later receiving the three-year SAKI grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance in late 2018.
According to the SAFE Kits initiative inventory report, the SAFE Kits initiative inventory resulted in a total of 6,987 sexual assault kits. Out of the total inventory accounted for, 6,157 of those kits were untested. Of the untested kits, 4,438 were reported, meaning they had a police report to go along with them and 1,719 were unreported, meaning they were without an accompanying police report. Additionally, 830 of the kits discovered were previously tested.
The inventory results show that the oldest kits in the inventory date back to 1980. Information regarding the date of assault was only available for 89.6% of kits.
“The release of the inventory results reinforces what we knew to be true, our state let down survivors of sexual violence,” said Jennifer Carter-Dochler, public policy director for the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Assault in the release. “But moving forward, what we also know to be true is that collaboration is key.
“The recommendations from the Attorney General’s report provide necessary next steps for ensuring survivors have options for accessing justice, and that our state has policies and procedures in place for a comprehensive, consistent response to sexual violence. Our continued collaboration with the Attorney General’s Office can help make these recommendations a reality.”
With a clearer inventory of SAFE Kits in sight, the state of Missouri can now move forward with the next steps of the SAFE Kits Initiative in the never-ending fight for justice for those who have fallen victim to sexual assault.
“Thanks to the important work that our great team of analysts did, and the fantastic participation and cooperation of law enforcement and healthcare partners, we now have a clear picture of how many sexual assault kits are around the state,” said Judge Williams. “Now that we’ve accomplished this major part of the initiative, we can look to tracking and testing these kits.”
The next steps include creating an electronic tracking system and testing kits. The grant from BJA will cover a certain portion of the testing, which will take place at a private testing lab as to not overload the Missouri State Highway Patrol lab.
A third-party lab will then verify the initial lab’s work and the Highway Patrol’s crime lab will review the results to upload to CODIS.
To learn more about the SAFE Kits Initiative Inventory Report go to ago.mo.gov.
