State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, has introduced legislation to prohibit law enforcement agencies from using the DNA of victims collected from rape kits for use to investigate separate crimes.
That is a sensible proposal and should be implemented statewide to make sure it never happens anywhere ever again.
“There are so many barriers to survivors coming forward,” Wiener tweeted on Monday, announcing his introduction of the proposal through Senate Bill 1228. “If survivors believe their DNA may be used against them, it’s just one more barrier.”
The proposal follows a recent incident out of San Francisco in which the police department, using DNA from a 2016 rape kit, linked the DNA of the victim to an unrelated property crime.
USA Today’s Tami Abdollah has subsequently reported that “the police department’s crime lab was not only storing sexual assault victim’s DNA through the last seven years, the department was also routinely searching suspect DNA for matches against DNA belonging to victims of other crimes, including children, as well as volunteers like consensual sexual partners who provided DNA to help isolate a suspect’s DNA in a rape case. All matches were reported to police investigators.”
Though San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin wisely declined to prosecute the individual whose case brought all of this to light, it is troubling that law enforcement departments could end up in this situation.
“Victims of sexual assault should be encouraged and supported in coming forward to undergo sexual assault examinations to identify their perpetrator,” Boudin said in a statement. “Instead, the practice by a police crime lab that my office exposed treats victims like criminals. It not only violates their privacy, but it dissuades victims from reporting sexual violence — which makes us all less safe.”
That’s right.
While police investigators may want to have access to as much information as they can potentially get to help them solve crimes, there are rules and processes in place to protect civil liberties and to avoid discouraging victims of crimes from engaging with law enforcement as well.
San Francisco’s police chief has vowed to not allow victim DNA to be used to investigate unrelated crimes.
“It doesn’t matter what case it is, if it’s a serial killer,” San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott told USA Today. “No victim information will be shared with investigators. I’m not a scientist but I know what direction I gave. I know what confirmation I gave to my lab people, the chief of investigation is very clear, that it’s not to be done.”
But according to USA Today, the department’s policies are written in a way that could in fact allow the practice to continue, just with less transparency.
Hence, a clearly and directly written state law to prohibit the practive to take this option out of the hands of police departments is in order.