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In an announcement that officials hope will help bring closure to survivors of sexual assault living in Contra Costa County, on March 12 District Attorney Diana Becton stated that the county had successfully ended its backlog of untested sexual assault kits.
Using funds from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Sexual Assault Kit Backlog Elimination Grant Program — a three-year grant program to test sexual assault kits — Contra Costa County was able to test 1,246 kits that date back to 1978.
“We partnered with 24 law enforcement agencies in our community to erase the backlog of sexual assault kits in Contra Costa County. I want to express my gratitude for our partners working with our office to end the backlog,” DA Becton said in a statement. “Testing these kits can help bring closure and justice to sexual assault victims. We are going to continue working on this issue to ensure we never have a backlog in our community again.”
According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) kits will not be tested because of the volume of evidence outpacing the resources available to test, process and profile samples in a crime lab, creating a backlog as untested evidence is stored potentially for prolonged periods of time.
Contra Costa County began the process of testing these kits in 2015, when it was awarded $1,841,535 from the Manhattan DA to run the tests and upload the information to the national DNA data bank, to assist investigations and identify offenders
By distributing $35 million to 32 agencies, the program tested 55,242 kits and resulted in 18,803 DNA profiles uploaded into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).
According to the Contra Costa DA’s office, locally the testing resulted in the following:
*1,246 kits DNA tested (from 1978 to 2016)
*182 DNA profiles entered into CODIS
*122 Confirmatory hits
*51 Offender hits
*8 Cases reopened for further review by law enforcement agencies
*Full compliance of all participating agencies
To ease the burden of testing, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Crime Lab with collaboration from the DA’s office sent untested kits to Sorenson Forensics in Utah for processing.
“Historically, the law enforcement community in the United States has collectively struggled to bring justice to survivors of sexual assault. For a variety of reasons, including the challenging nature of such cases, deeply held biases and a lack of resources, the field has not adequately addressed this devastating crime,” Manhattan DA Cyrus R. Vance Jr., said in a statement. “Just as we encourage survivors of sexual assault to report their crimes to law enforcement, we must encourage law enforcement to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of these crimes.”
About time! Justice delayed is justice denied.