I’m so pleased that our state continues to build on our successes from legislation we passed in 2016. All the previously untested sexual assault kits have now been submitted for testing!
I want to publicly thank Matthew Gamette and his extraordinary team at the Idaho State Police Forensics (ISPF) Laboratory. They have created a first of its kind tracking system that 29 states have now asked to utilize, and worked countless hours to ensure that vital evidence of a sexual assault is processed in a timely way.
We have been effectively revolutionizing our systems to support survivors and better equip law enforcement and nurses with the tools to do their jobs.
In 2016, we passed H528 that established minimum standards for processing and tracking sexual assault kit evidence. In 2017, we passed H146 that established some of the best timelines to preserve evidence, which greatly supports those victims that may not want to or be able to proceed with a prosecution until they have dealt with the trauma. In 2018, with H429a we took insurance companies out of the billing process of the sexual assault forensic medical exam and created a first of its kind state funding mechanism so no one has to be concerned about paying a bill to catch a criminal.
This year, I plan on introducing another piece of legislation that will put us closer to a “test all” policy where the only kits not submitted for testing would be those that were determined to be “unfounded” by police. The national average is low at about 2%, not unlike most other crimes.
We have learned a lot since passing that first law and we have discovered that, according to nurses, there may be substantial confusion surrounding a survivor’s declination of submitting the kit for processing after going through the 3-4 hour medical exam versus not going forward with an investigation or a case. Survivors may, also, choose to submit their sexual assault evidence kit as an “anonymous” kit if they are not ready to report to police or have the police move forward on a formal complaint. The trauma that someone experiences during and after a sexual assault is significant, so we have created ways for the person to have evidence collected so they may come back later and make a determination to go forward with a case, since we are preserving the evidence for up to 10 years for an anonymous case. Even if the kit is processed and the survivor determines later that they don’t want to go forward with a formal case, the evidence will still remain but the survivor still has their say with proceeding with a case. And this may help us catch a serial rapist in the end.
I have worked with a coalition of stakeholders to draft this legislation and hope that it will help increase the number of kits that are going to the lab so we can hold perpetrators accountable.
The latest annual report is on the Idaho State Police Forensics website so you can see the progress and challenges that still remain. This annual report is a vital part of my first piece of legislation so we can assess our progress and constantly work on improvements.