The Metropolitan King County Council on Monday gave its unanimous approval to provide $200,000 in funding for sexual assault experts in the King County Sheriff\u2019s Office to identify the exact number of untested rape kits that remain in the county, prioritize those cases for testing and submit them to the State Patrol Crime Laboratory for processing.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the right thing to do, and as we\u2019ve seen across the country, this work often results in arrests and convictions of serial rapists and other criminals,\u201d said Councilmember Rod Dembowski, the prime sponsor of the legislation, in a media release. \u201cIt sends a clear message to victims of sexual assault \u2013 you matter, what happened to you matters, and we take your case seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Rape kits are intended for use immediately after a sexual assault has occurred, but once the evidence has been collected, it can sit in storage for years. Across the country, thousands of rape kits \u2013 DNA evidence collected by a health care professional after a sexual assault \u2013 go untested each year. In jurisdictions like New York City, Dallas and Tacoma, the analysis of previously untested rape kits has led to the identification of new offenders, linking of serial cases, and exoneration of the wrongly convicted.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important that any rape kits that contain information that could bring a perpetrator to justice be tested,\u201d said Reagan Dunn, Councilmember for District 9. \u201cI believe this illustrates how serious we are as a community in taking steps to bring to justice those who commit these violent acts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This year, the Washington State Legislature passed House Bill 1068, requiring all new rape kits to be submitted for testing to the State Patrol Crime Laboratory within 30 days of being collected by law enforcement.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal of this law is two-fold: justice for the victims whose lives were dramatically impacted by sexual violence, and help for law enforcement to catch serial rapists before they strike again,\u201d said State Rep. Tina Orwall, D-Des Moines, sponsor of House Bill 1068.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this announcement, the leadership in King County is making a concrete commitment to victims,\u201d said Mary Ellen Stone, executive director of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center. \u201cTesting all kits going forward as well as addressing past kits sends a clear and positive message to victims that reporting matters. It\u2019s important for victims and it\u2019s important for our community. I encourage other jurisdictions throughout our region to take similar steps.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Metropolitan King County Council on Monday gave its unanimous approval to provide $200,000 in funding for sexual assault experts in the King County Sheriff\u2019s Office to identify the exact number of untested rape kits that remain in the county.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-1257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1257"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}