2020 FOIA Request
Why did we send the FOIA?
In 2020, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra released a report, announcing at least 13,929 untested kits in the state. Pursuant to AB 3118, the Department of Justice is mandated to collect information from all law enforcement agencies (LEAs), “medical facilities, crime laboratories, and any other facility that maintains, stores, or preserves sexual assault kits.” However, only 149 LEAs and crime labs out of 708 submitted data, and we still do not know the extent of the backlog in California. To shed light on the true extent of the backlog in California, through The Accountability Project, Joyful Heart has issued public records requests to police departments in the 21 largest cities in California that have not participated in the inventory.
What did we discover?
Our partners at Goodwin submitted an open records request to the Fullerton Police Department in December 2020. On December 17, 2020, the PD provided its policy on sexual assault investigations, a list of kits collected for the PD by forensic nurses by year (2000-2019), and a list of FPD stats with kits. Upon a request for clarification, the PD provided an explanation for fields on the charts in February 2021. The first data set reflects 2000-2019 for kits collected by sexual assault nurse examiners (SANEs) for the FPD, given by year. This chart shows that 508 kits were collected, however, does not provide any information on kits’ testing status. The second data set reflects kits collected by the FPD from 2000-2021.
Based on these documents, the SANEs collected 508 kits from 2000-2019, but the FPD records have only 346 kits collected. The FPD records state that 130 kits were sent to the lab and returned, and the records officer assumed all these were tested. The FPD reports 111 kits were destroyed. According to the chart, 12 of the 130 kits sent to the lab were not returned, and 32 were not tested. The testing status of the remaining kits is unknown. There is a mismatch with kit numbers. As the SANEs collected 508 kits and the second chart only says 130 kits were tested, we took the remaining 378 kits as untested.
Based on these documents, the SANEs collected 508 kits from 2000-2019, but the FPD records have only 346 kits collected. The FPD records state that 130 kits were sent to the lab and returned, and the records officer assumed all these were tested. The FPD reports 111 kits were destroyed. According to the chart, 12 of the 130 kits sent to the lab were not returned, and 32 were not tested. The testing status of the remaining kits is unknown. There is a mismatch with kit numbers. As the SANEs collected 508 kits and the second chart only says 130 kits were tested, we took the remaining 378 kits as untested.
More Accountability Targets in California
Bakersfield, CAConcord, CACorona, CAFremont, CAFresno, CAGarden Grove, CAGlendale, CAHayward, CALong Beach, CAOrange, CAOxnard, CAPasadena, CAPomona, CARedding, CASacramento, CASalinas, CASan Bernardino, CASan Diego, CASan Jose, CASanta Barbara, CASanta Cruz, CASanta Monica, CASanta Rosa, CAShasta County, CASimi Valley, CAStockton, CATorrance, CAVallejo, CAVisalia, CA
Why Accountability?
Right now, we do not know the full extent of the national rape kit backlog because few states require law enforcement agencies to count, track, or test rape kits. The Accountability Project aims to bring greater transparency and accountability to rape kit testing practices across the country.