Sentencing reform: I'm going to present a false dilemma

[JonLP24]

45. This year has revealed some police departments don't like investigating rape

Rape evidence ignored by police departments statewide

Rape is a horrific crime that often goes unsolved. Even victims who are brutally violated are sometimes reluctant to go to police or to have evidence collected from their body and clothing at a hospital.

That's why Evergreen Health in Kirkland staffs its emergency room with a specially trained sexual assault nurse examiner (also called a forensic nurse examiner) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Those nurses provide emotional support to rape victims, while also delicately and carefully collecting evidence—called a rape kit--that may have been left behind by a perpetrator. With the victim's consent, the rape kits are sent on to the police, where the DNA evidence can help track down and prosecute perpetrators.

<snip>

CODIS Lab Manager Jean Johnston says if there is a hit it means the DNA from the rape kit matches the profile of a convicted offender or suspect that was previously entered CODIS.

But the lab can't test what it never gets. And the KING 5 Investigators found that the majority of rape kits in Washington are still sitting in evidence rooms.

Seattle Police Department records show that out of 1641 rape kits collected over a decade, only 365 were ever submitted to the Washington State Patrol Lab, leaving nearly 1300 untested kits on the shelf.

The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) is in the process of surveying nearly 300 law enforcement agencies statewide to find out how many untested rape kits are out there.

WASPC Executive Director Mitch Barker says so far only 68 agencies have returned the surveys, but the number of untested rape kits has already reached 4,679. Barker expects the number could easily hit 6,000 and the Washington State Patrol crime lab predicts it could be much higher.

All of those untested kits worry victims' advocates like Mary Ellen Stone, Director of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center in Renton.

"The justice system needs to be as responsive to victims as it can possibly be," Stone says "Where we get really concerned about rape kits not being tested, for whatever reason, is that it sends a very dismissive message to victims."

http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/investigations/2015/01/14/rape-evidence-ignored-by-police-departments-statewide/21725431/

Sheriff Joe's MCSO has no problem locking up large numbers of people for whatever and for made up reasons (such as forgery) but complex, high end investigations are better suited to address violence rather than body counts behind bars but rape? They would rather do something else.