In late May, Joyful Heart staff had the honor of attending the annual Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) meeting in Washington, D.C. Once a year, teams from each grantee jurisdiction of both the SAKI and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office (DANY) grant programs come together to discuss strategies for testing kits, investigating cases, prosecuting offenders, and re-engaging survivors. Representatives of jurisdictions across the country—from Oregon to Louisiana and Florida to Montana—who are working to eliminate their untested rape kit backlog met to engage in open discussion, share lessons learned, and honor accomplishments. The multidisciplinary teams include law enforcement professionals, prosecutors, sexual assault nurse examiners, crime lab professionals, and victim advocates.
Several members of the SAKI Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) team, a group of national experts supporting each grantee jurisdiction in their work, presented at the event. I was honored to share Joyful Heart’s research on victim notification and help lead a workshop walking participants through creating a victim notification plan. We discussed the challenges sites may face. For instance, how do we create victim notification protocols for a city versus an entire state? How do we ensure law enforcement and victim advocates work together to provide survivors with all the information they need in response to their questions?
All of the panels and workshops were united by a common perspective: being victim-centered and trauma-informed.
At the meeting:
- Survivor-advocates discussed the importance of recognizing survivors’ unique experiences and including their voices in rape kit reform efforts;
- Researchers spoke about their role in SAKI projects, as well as initial research findings;
- Law enforcement specialists presented best practices for CODIS hit follow-up and investigation;
- Prosecutors discussed strategies for successful prosecution of cold cases;
- Lab personnel provided information aimed at helping grantees develop and optimize their rape kit testing plan, including the outsourcing of backlogged kits; and
- Site representatives shared success stories from cases they were able to finally solve through rape kit testing.
The safety and well-being of survivors were at the core of all conference events. Participants from across disciplines expressed that the wishes and needs of survivors must be at the heart of every decision made in the effort to eliminate the backlog.
Later this year, more communities will receive SAKI grants to start processing their untested rape kits. These grants make meaningful change, encouraging law enforcement, prosecutors, lab personnel, medical professionals, and victim advocates to collaborate to change the way rape kits are in handled in their communities. Joyful Heart will continue to assist these grantees as they do this important work.
-By Ilse Knecht, Director of Policy and Advocacy, June 20, 2017