California

Critical rape kit bills in California

Exciting news! Rape kit reform took a meaningful step forward in California, thanks to Senator Anthony J. Portantino (D-25) and Patricia Bates (D-36), Senate Appropriations chairs. We are grateful to all of you who made your support loud and clear for S.B. 22!

S.B. 22, sponsored by Senator Connie Leyva (D-20), strengthens the language of existing statute to ensure the timely submission and testing of sexual assault evidence kits. Currently, state law merely encourages the timely submission and testing of kits. This bill would mandate law enforcement to submit rape kits for testing within 20 days and crime labs to test the evidence within 120 days.

The bill now moves to the full Senate for consideration.

As for A.B. 358, and A.B. 1496, we are disappointed to report that both bills were held up in the Assembly Appropriations Committee and will not pass this year.

Legislative Reform

In 2003, California enacted a law granting victims the right to be informed whether a DNA profile was obtained from testing their rape kit, the profile was uploaded into the DNA database, and the DNA profile matched another profile in the database. Additionally, victims have the right to know if law enforcement decide not to test a rape kit within established time limits, and must be notified 60 days prior if law enforcement intends to destroy or dispose of such evidence. Victims are also granted the right to designate a sexual assault victim advocate to receive any of the above information. 

In 2014, California enacted a law that encourages law enforcement agencies to submit newly collected rape kits for testing within 20 days of being booked into evidence and instructs the crime lab to process rape kit evidence as soon as possible, but no later than 120 days after receiving it. It also requires law enforcement agencies to inform survivors, whether or not the identity of the perpetrator is known, if the law enforcement agency does not analyze the DNA evidence within certain time limits. 

In 2016, California enacted a law that requires the California Department of Justice (CAL DOJ) to establish a process for victims to request information about the location and status of their rape kits by July 2018. 

In 2017, California enacted multiple rape kit reform laws:

• A.B. 41, which requires law enforcement agencies and forensic labs to use the CAL DOJ SAFE-T evidence system to maintain and update information about the location and testing status of all newly collected rape kits. Additionally, the bill requires CAL DOJ to submit an annual report to the legislature summarizing all rape kit data collected within the SAFE-T system the previous year. 
  
• A.B. 1312, which includes provisions strengthening survivors’ rights to notice regarding the location and status of their kits and prohibiting law enforcement agencies from destroying rape kits for at least 20 years. 
  
• A.B. 280, which enables citizens to donate money to test rape kits while filing personal income taxes. 

In 2018, California enacted a law which requires medical facilities, law enforcement agencies, and crime laboratories to conduct an audit of untested rape kits in their possession and report certain data to the California Department of Justice by July 2019.

S.B. 1449, a bill that would have required law enforcement to submit rape kits to crime labs for testing within 20 days of collection and crime labs to test kits within 120 days of receipt, passed the California legislature unanimously but was vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown. 

The 2018 state budget included $1 million to conduct the inventory and $6.5 million to test backlogged kits. 

In 2019, California legislators considered multiple pieces of legislation.

• S.B. 22, which would require newly collected rape kits to be submitted within 20 days for DNA analysis and tested no later than 120 days after receipt. The bill also allocates $2 million to help local law enforcement agencies comply with these reforms. Read our written and oral testimonies in support of the bill. 
• A.B. 358, which would require the CAL DOJ to modify existing statewide sexual assault kit tracking system to allow victims of sexual assault to check te status of their kits anonymously. The bill would alo require all law enforcement agencies to enter information about the outcome of each sexual assault case into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) Hit Outcome Project (CHOP). 
• A.B. 1496 would mandate law enforcement agencies submit kits for testing within 20 days and crimes labs would be required to test the kits within 120 days. The bill also requires law enforcement agencies to send all rape kits collected before January 1, 2020 to a crime lab within six months and test the kits the evidence within 120 days. 

In 2019, Joyful Heart testified in front of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee on the state of the rape kit backlog and California's need to adopt further reforms. Read our testimony. 

The Accountability Project

In 2014, The Accountability Project issued an open records request to bring the number of untested rape kits in San Diego to light. Through this request, we uncovered a backlog of 2,873 untested kits in San Diego.

In 2015, The Accountability Project issued open records requests to Fresno, Sacramento, and San Jose:

• Between December 2015 and June 2016, Joyful Heart submitted four records request letters to the Fresno Police Department (FPD). FPD has not fully responded to any of our records requests. According to the California Department of Justice, grant funding from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was partially used to process 561 previously untested rape kits from FPD.
• Through our efforts, we have learned that the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department (SCSD) submitted 62% of all rape kits received between 2005 and 2015 to the lab for testing. As of January 2016, SCSD reported 456 untested rape kits. Since 2013, SCSD submits all newly collected kits for testing, and they are in the process of submitting previously untested kits to the lab at this time. Sacramento Police Department (SPD) did not fully respond to our request. SPD stated that they have “no documents responsive” to the total number of kits in their custody, tested or untested. SPD took no additional measures to attempt to provide this information. As such, we were unable to ascertain the number and testing status of rape kits in the custody of SPD. 
• The San Jose Police Department (SJPD) has not fully responded to our request. Through our efforts, we discovered that SJPD did not have an evidence tracking system for rape kits until mid-2012, and it appears that SJPD does not know how many rape kits were received into evidence before then. SJPD did report to us that, as of January 1, 2016, the department will submit all newly collected kits to the lab for testing. 

In 2017, The Accountability Project issued open records requests to Bakersfield, Long Beach, Oxnard, Redding, San Bernardino, Santa Cruz, Shasta County, and Stockton:

• Based on data provided, Bakersfield Police Department (BPD) received a total of 1,165 rape kits between 2003 and 2017, and submitted just 48% of these kits to the lab for testing. BPD stated that data provided includes rape kits collected from all offenses, including homicides.
• Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) provided a table showing a total of 1,657 rape kits collected between July 1993 and August 2017. It was not clear how many of these kits were submitted to a lab for testing, and LBPD did not provide clarification. Because of this incomplete information, we have been unable to determine the extent of the backlog in Long Beach.
• Based on data provided, Oxnard Police Department (OPD) received 490 rape kits between 1997 and mid-2017, and submitted 77.8% of these kits for testing. 88 kits were not sent to the lab, and 21 kits are unaccounted for in the data we received. OPD did not respond to our follow-up efforts.
• Based on data provided, Redding Police Department (RPD) received 621 rape kits between 2000 and 2017, 167 of which have not been submitted to the lab for processing. RBD was unable to determine whether the 298 kits destroyed during this time were tested.
• San Bernardino Police Department (SBPD) provided evidence management system records of all sexual assault kits received between 1984 and 2011. These records do not indicate whether the kits were submitted for testing. Despite follow-up efforts, we were unable to determine the extent of the backlog in San Bernardino.
• The Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) provided a list of kits in inventory without collection date or testing status. In subsequent communication, the Deputy City Attorney stated that identifying collection date and testing status for these kits "would require a manual search of these case reports." Despite our efforts, we were unable to obtain complete information about the backlog in Santa Cruz.
• Shasta County Sheriff's Office (SCSO) indicated they do not possess documentation of the number of rape kits collected, submitted for testing, or not submitted for testing. As such, we are unable to determine the extent of the backlog in Shasta County.
• Based on data provided, Stockton Police Department (SPD) received 481 rape kits between 2010 and 2017, and submitted 96% of these kits for testing, leaving a backlog of 19 unsubmitted rape kits.

Federal Grants

In 2015, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office awarded funding to several agencies in California:

• The California Department of Justice was awarded $1,606,239 to test 2,000 rape kits statewide;
• The Alameda County District Attorney's Office was awarded $835,830 to test 1,075 rape kits;
• The Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office was awarded $1,841,535 to test 2,400 kits; and
• The Riverside Police Department was awarded $433,800 to test 650 kits.

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded Orange County $1,864,651 to process nearly 3,600 unprocessed kits, investigate and prosecute cases, and re-engage survivors.

In 2018, BJA awarded the City of Fresno $1 million to test kits, investigate and prosecute cases, and re-engage survivors. 

TAKE ACTION TODAY TO BRING FURTHER RAPE KIT REFORM TO CALIFORNIA