Progress against sexual assault: Governor says backlog of untested evidence kits to be finished in 2020 – Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

News-Miner opinion: Just over a year ago, a Daily News-Miner editorial began with an observation that significant progress has been made in addressing the issue of untested or unsubmitted sexual assault kits throughout the state.

The editorial noted that a 2018 inventory of sexual assault evidence kits that had not been subjected to DNA analysis found that the states 48 law enforcement agencies reported having 2,568 untested kits that year, an improvement from the 2,979 reported in a 2017 inventory.

Six agencies accounted for 87%, or 2,237, of the unsubmitted kits in 2018. Of these, Anchorage police had the most, at 62%, followed by Juneau police and Alaska State Troopers, at 7% each. The Fairbanks Police Department was responsible for 6% of the unsubmitted tests last year. Other agencies accounted for the rest.

Progress from 2017 to 2018 was solid. That progress has continued.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced in an opinion column this week that the Department of Public Safety has cleared the Alaska State Troopers backlog of sexual assault kits that once stood at 650 untested kits.

The governor also wrote that Testing of additional kits submitted by local agencies is funded and well underway, with all previously untested sexual assault kits projected to be processed by the end of 2020.

An end date is at hand.

The effort to process the untested or unsubmitted tests began in 2017 following then-Gov. Bill Walkers signing of legislation that brought Alaska into compliance with the federal Violence Against Women Act.

Among its provisions, the new state law required each law enforcement agency to report to the Department of Public Safety the number of untested sexual assault evidence kits in its possession. The 2017 count of those cases led to later legislation, also signed by Gov. Walker, requiring an annual audit of unsubmitted, untested sexual assault kits so that agencies could prioritize efforts to reduce the backlog.

Getting these evidence kits tested is vital, not only for the victims in those cases but also, possibly, for victims of other cases. Public Safety Commissioner Amanda Price, on the web page of the departments Sexual Assault Kit Initiative website, writes that time, experience and research also tells us that sexual assault offenders often assault more than one victim and often commit other types of crimes. DNA may be the key to linking that offender to other actions they have not been held accountable for yet.

Alaska has the nations highest sexual assault rate. In fact, according to a recent report from the FBI, Alaskas rate of reported sexual assaults actually increased 11% in 2018, according to the FBI.

Our state has a major problem. Reducing the sexual assault rate consists of deterrence and, when that fails, bringing offenders to justice. Eliminating the backlog of untested kits is a key piece in what should remain a strong effort to reduce, if not end, sexual assault.

Read the original here:

Progress against sexual assault: Governor says backlog of untested evidence kits to be finished in 2020 - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner