California

In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded the City of Fresno nearly $2 million to submit additional SAKs for testing and the City of San Jose $2.5 million to inventory partially tested sexual assault kits, address gaps from the FY2021 SAKI project, and enhance investigative capacity for cold cases.

In 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office $1,500,000 to prioritize cases with suspect DNA, submit DNA for timely analysis, and successfully investigate and prosecute these cases.

In 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded Kern County $2,500,000 to test 750 untested kits possessed by the Kern County Sheriff’s Office.

In 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded Ventura County $2,500,000 to investigate cold cases.

According to a new city audit, the Sacramento Police Department has an estimated 340 untested rape kits collected prior to 2016, and has not told California’s Department of Justice — a violation of state law. The audit found that the Police Department does not count untested kits in its possession, but all 25 kits collected after 2016 have been tested.

In 2023, legislators in California enacted SB464. This bill requires all law enforcement agencies, medical facilities, crime laboratories, and any other facilities that receive, maintain, store, or preserve sexual assault evidence kits to conduct an audit of all untested sexual assault evidence kits in their possession. With this new inventory, we will have a better understanding of the extend of the backlog in the state.

In 2023, legislators in California introduced AB1368. This bill would have mandated all the backlogged kits collected before 1/1/16 be submitted to a crime lab on or before January 31, 2025. The lab would have been required to process the kits no later than January 31, 2026. This bill failed.

California enacted SB916 which would make survivors’ access to the state tracking system, SAFE-T, clear in law.  The bill also requires the card law enforcement must give survivors to include a statement that a court may not imprison or otherwise confine or place in custody a victim of sexual assault or domestic violence for refusing to testify.

In 2021, California enacted SB215, which required the addition of a survivor portal to the state’s rape kit tracking system, SAFE-T. Through this, survivors would receive information about the status and location of their kits, anonymously and on their own terms. 

SB129 was enacted in 2021, appropriating $4 million under the Sexual Assault Evidence Submission Grant Program for local law enforcement to submit rape kits to the lab for testing. 

AB18 would have mandated law enforcement agencies to submit all the backlogged kits from before 2016 to a crime lab by January 31, 2023. The bill also would have required the labs to test all the kits by January 31, 2024. This bill failed to pass.

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded the City of Fresno $1,000,000 to address lawfully owed DNA under SAKI.

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded Ventura County $2,498,907 to assist in testing approximately 1,000 sexual assault kits and to form a multidisciplinary working group to develop policies for inventorying, prioritizing, and testing all unsubmitted kits.

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded the City of San Jose $1,425,000 to submit approximately 655 sexual assault kits (SAKs) for DNA testing, and to improve methodology for data collection, tracking, and sustainable management of rape kits.

In April 2020, the California attorney general released the one-time statewide audit mandated by AB3118. The law clearly stated that each law enforcement agency, medical facility, lab, and any other facility that receives, maintains, stores, or preserves rape kits should conduct an audit of all untested rape kits in their possession and participate in the statewide audit. However, the report showed that only 149 police agencies and crime labs participated in the audit. There are 690 police agencies in the state. The report also said that no medical facilities provided information for the audit.

In February 2020, California legislators introduced AB2481, a bill that would require all kits received by law enforcement agencies before January 2016 to be submitted and tested in a crime laboratory by January 31, 2022. Read our testimony in support of the bill. This bill failed to pass.

In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded the City of Fresno $2,186,109 to continue investigating cold case sexual assaults that were identified during previous SAKI awards, to identify partially tested SAKs, and to submit those for DNA testing, along with secondary evidence.

AB358 would have required the California Department of Justice to modify the existing statewide rape kit tracking system to allow survivors of sexual assault to check the status of their kits anonymously. The bill would have also required all law enforcement agencies to enter information about the outcome of each sexual assault case into the Combined DNA Index System Hit Outcome Project. This bill failed to pass.

AB1496 would have mandated law enforcement agencies to submit kits for testing within 20 days, and crime labs to test the kits within 120 days. The bill also would have required law enforcement agencies to send all rape kits collected before January 1, 2020 to a crime lab within six months, and for those kits to be tested within 120 days. This bill failed to pass.

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.

In October 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB22, mandating law enforcement to submit rape kits for testing within 20 days, and crime labs to test the evidence within 120 days. Previous law merely encouraged the timely submission and testing of kits. Read our written and oral testimonies in support of the bill.

In 2018, California enacted AB3118, which required 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.

The same year, Joyful Heart determined that there were 13,615 untested kits, based on a national grant funding report and The Accountability Project.

SB1449 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. The bill passed the California legislature unanimously, but was vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown.

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

In 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded the City of Fresno $1,000,000 to create a Sexual Assault Cold Case Unit to investigate more than 350 sexual assault kits, to hire new staff to investigate these cold cases, and to move them through the criminal justice system to prosecution.

AB41 requires law enforcement agencies and forensic labs to use the California Department of Justice (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.

AB1312 includes provisions strengthening survivors’ rights to notice regarding the location and status of their kits. It also prohibits law enforcement agencies from destroying rape kits for at least 20 years.

AB280 enables citizens to donate money to test rape kits when filing their personal income taxes.

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded Orange County $1,864,651 to inventory, submit, and test approximately 3,580 SAKs, and to create a multidisciplinary community response team and develop an automated tracking system.

In 2016, California enacted AB2499 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 2014, California enacted AB1517, which 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 2003, California enacted AB898, granting survivors the right to be informed whether a DNA profile was obtained from testing their rape kit, whether the profile was uploaded into the DNA database, and whether the DNA profile matched another profile in the database. Additionally, survivors have the right to know if law enforcement decides 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. Survivors are also granted the right to designate a sexual assault victim advocate to receive any of the above information.