The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, wrote a letter to FBI urges the agency to check whether police use data from rape kits to link victims of sexual violence to other crimes.
San Francisco police were accused last week of doing just that by linking DNA from a rape kit to a woman who said she was sexually assaulted to link her to an unrelated property. crime.
The city’s district attorney, Chesa Budin, said he had learned that DNA samples collected from rape victims were included in a database of suspects.
It is unclear whether the woman was convicted on the basis of DNA.
Referring to this incident, Schiff, a California Democrat, wrote on FBI Director Christopher Ray: “While some details of this reported incident remain unclear, they deserve your attention and action, because even the feeling that law enforcement is looking for DNA profiles collected from victims of sexual violence can have a chilling effect on the desire to reports sexual assault attacks.
“Do current federal laws and regulations allow law enforcement agencies to upload DNA profiles obtained from victims of crime to the database of violators of the National DNA Index System?” Schiff asked.
Representative Adam Schiff wrote a letter to the FBI asking the agency to check whether police are using data from rape kits to link victims of sexual violence to other crimes.
Schiff wrote to FBI Director Christopher Ray above: “While some details of this reported incident remain unclear, they deserve your attention and action, because even the feeling that law enforcement is searching DNA profiles collected from victims of sexual violence may has a chilling effect on the willingness to report sexual assault. “
“Will you try to tell state and local law enforcement why why having a DNA profile of a victim of a crime in this way, especially a victim of sexual violence, will have a chilling effect on reporting rape and sexual assault?” He said.
Schiff asked Ray to respond by March 4 and said he was ready to draft legislation banning cross-testing of DNA rape kits with other criminal databases.
Buden and many local lawmakers condemned the “legally and ethically wrong” practice and warned that it would stop future victims from moving forward.
Since then, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott has launched an investigation into the allegations and vowed to end the practice.
“Whatever disagreement we have with District Attorney Budin, we agree that this issue needs to be addressed,” he said in a statement. “Ultimately, our respective departments exist to administer justice to victims of crime. The last thing we need to do is discourage their cooperation with us to achieve this.
The suspect Budin is talking about may have been identified by storing DNA in a non-victim database, Scott added.
San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott (right) says if Budin’s (left) allegations are true, he is committed to ending the practice.
Buden said he was calling for an end to the practice, which is being investigated by the legislature and the police
“Rape and sexual violence are violent, dehumanizing and traumatic,” he said in a press release Monday. “I am concerned that victims who have the courage to undergo an invasive examination to help identify their perpetrators are treated as criminals, not supported as victims of crime.
“We need to encourage survivors to come out, not gather evidence to use against them in the future. This practice treats victims as evidence, not as human beings.
Victims of sexual violence who report to the police are often asked to pass an exam so that investigators can gather evidence. The victim presents his or her own DNA so that it can be excluded as evidence in the analysis of the samples.
Using their DNA to convict them of future crimes could prevent future victims from moving forward, Budin’s office said.
Democrat Sen. Scott Wiener said he was working with the prosecutor’s office to deal with the situation.
Rape in San Francisco has dropped dramatically in the last five years; 207 were reported in 2021, compared to 446 rapes investigated in 2017.
Ronen drafts legislation to prevent San Francisco practice and says evidence from rape victim kit should be used exclusively to investigate sexual assault
“Going out after sexual assault to provide a rape kit can be re-traumatic,” he said in a statement. “Too many people decide not to take this step, given the trauma. Yet survivors can at least be sure – or so they thought – that the sample they provide as a rape kit will only be used to investigate sexual violence and not misused for other purposes.
“If survivors believe their DNA could be used against them in the future, they will have another reason not to participate in the rape kit process.”
District 9 Superintendent Hillary Ronen said she had asked the city attorney to draft legislation to prevent the use of evidence from the rape kit for any purpose other than investigating the rape.
“There are already huge barriers for rape victims to show up to report the crime,” Ronen said.
The DNA of rape victims must be protected at all levels of government, everywhere.
Rape cases in San Francisco are declining, police data show. In 2021, 207 cases were reported, compared to 449 rapes investigated in 2018.
However, there are other violent crimes in the city of Northern California, and Budin has been widely criticized for enabling criminals with his crime reform policies.
The city’s chief of police has publicly criticized Buden for showing leniency to criminals, and earlier this month accused him of withholding evidence of shootings involving officers and deaths in custody.