1. The Untested Rape Kit Crisis.
At least 25,000 untested rape kits have “piled up in law enforcement facilities and crime labs across the United States,” a recent report from US News and World Report explained.
That staggering number of untested kits in the possession of law enforcement agencies across 30 states—and rape victims who have yet to receive justice—exists despite $1.3 billion in funding from the U.S Department of Justice to law enforcement agencies to help them focus resources on testing and resolve these cases.
“Audit Finds Sacramento Police Department Has Backlog Of Untested Rape Kits.” For CapRadio, Sacramento’s NPR affiliate, Kristin Lam reports on the Sacramento Police Department’s failure “to comply with a rape kit law more than four years after a state deadline.” A 2018 law in California required “law enforcement agencies to count all of their untested sexual assault evidence kits and report data to the California Department of Justice by July 2019.” Police Chief Kathy Lester told city leaders during a recent hearing that she couldn’t explain why the department didn’t comply with the requirements: “I don't have an answer for you…And we don't have records.” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg told the news station that “There needs to be an accounting and we need to own that … we may owe apologies or other relief to people.”
What has changed with untested rape kits [in Memphis]? “Some band aids had been put on it, but no surgery has ever been done.” “Sept. 2 marks one year since Eliza Fletcher was kidnapped and her body found days later,” Brittani Moncrease reports for Memphis’ local ABC news affiliate. “The investigation of her death resurfaced the issue of thousands of untested rape kits in Memphis as Cleotha Abston, the man facing charges in Fletcher’s abduction and death, has been identified in another rape investigation just one year prior.” Here’s more from Moncrease:
“So what has changed over the past year when it come to Memphis police and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation testing rape kits? Thousands of rape survivors are seeking justice … Last week, a Shelby County judge decided the City of Memphis was not immune to a class action lawsuit brought by sexual assault survivors over more than 10,000 untested rape kits.
A local lawyer, Gary Smith, told ABC News:
“We have tragedy after tragedy after tragedy in our community … It is easy to look and say yes, if you tested the rape kid like you should have, [the man who killed Eliza Fletcher] should have been arrested … “The clear consequence of [the backlog] is not only do you have these victims who are not getting justice, but the rapist are allowed to stay on the street … The culture of law enforcement handling of rape kits has to change. It is clear history tells us that rape and sexual assault are not treated with a degree of seriousness that crime deserves.”
When places prioritize clearing rape kit backlogs, those backlogs are cleared:
“The Oklahoma City Police Department says that the city’s own backlog has been clear for years,” Brett Fieldcamp reports for the Oklahoma City Free Press. As the OKCPD told Fieldcamp: “The screening examination of all backlogged kits was completed in September 2021 … Since that date we have been processing the newly-submitted kits as they come in.”
“Orange County clears 30-year backlog of testing sexual assault kits,” Sean Emery reports for the Orange County Register: “A 30-year, county-wide backlog of untested sexual assault kits has been cleared, resulting in hundreds of new profiles of potential offenders being entered into law enforcement databases and criminal charges being brought in a half-dozen cold cases…”
Illinois. Last year, Governor Governor Pritzker “announced that after decades of extensive sexual assault forensic backlogs, the number … has reached zero.” Christopher Belt, an Illinois State Senator, credited the “Illinois State Police [for] working to prioritize survivors of sexual assault and eliminate the forensic case backlog.”
2. Why The Chicago Police Department Has A Community Trust Problem:
“A Chicago Cop Is Accused of Lying Under Oath 44 Times. Now Prosecutors Are Dropping Cases That Relied on His Testimony.” For ProPublica, Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen reports on a Chicago police officer who is accused of “lying under oath 44 times to get out of speeding, parking and red light camera tickets involving his personal vehicles” which has led local prosecutors to drop “at least 15 court cases that hinged on the word [of the Chicago officer] now charged with perjury and forgery.” As Richards and Cohen report, prosecutors will likely be forced to drop countless more cases as the officer was a 26-year veteran who “faced nearly 100 misconduct complaints from citizens and fellow officers in his tenure on the force.”
Chicago Police Misconduct Has Cost Taxpayers $280 Million Since 2019. For WTTW, Chicago’s local PBS news station, Heather Cherone and Jared Rutecki report that Chicago taxpayers are on the hook for a total of $280 million in lawsuits involving police misconduct—including $91 million to “resolve lawsuits that named 116 Chicago police officers whose alleged misconduct led more than once to payouts between 2019 and 2021” and $198 million to “resolve lawsuits alleging more than 1,000 Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct—including false arrest and excessive force.” WTTW highlighted some of the most egregious allegations:
“Two officers were the subject of 10 or more cases that led to payouts between 2019 and 2021… Both were found guilty in 2019 on charges of conspiracy and obstructing justice in their roles as tactical officers. Prosecutors alleged [that the officers] crafted fraudulent search warrants to raid homes and steal cash and drugs… [one of those officers] was sentenced to more than seven years in prison, while [the other] got a nearly six-year prison term.
Another 26 officers were named in three lawsuits, including a former Chicago Police Detective, who has been accused of framing more than 50 Chicagoans, including at least one woman who was sentenced to die based on evidence he collected. In 2017, a judge ruled [the detective] routinely lied under oath. Cases that named [the detective] cost Chicago taxpayers more than $39.3 million in 2019, 2020 and 2021, the most tied to a single officer identified by WTTW News’ analysis. In all, 32 people who were convicted after being arrested by [the detective] were exonerated, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. The city faces at least 12 pending lawsuits filed by those who claim they were wrongfully convicted in cases investigated by [the detective].”
Multiple Chicago Police Officers Alleged To Have Had Sex With Underage Migrants Sheltered In The Police Station. Earlier this summer, Chicago’s police oversight committee “received information from an unidentified source alleging a specific officer had sexual contact with an unidentified, underaged female migrant. The source also claimed other unidentified officers from the same district may have engaged in similar behavior,” according to reporting from Chicago’s local Fox News affiliate. Based on this and subsequent tips, there are now “four officers [who have] allegedly engaged in sexual relations with migrants living in the Ogden District police station … The most troubling allegation may just be that some of the sexual misconduct involved a teenager who became pregnant.” The investigation is still underway, though it is worth noting that undocumented migrants in police custody are not among the most likely people to feel safe coming forward on the record to name and testify against a police officer.
3. “Oakland Police Department risks losing state funding if city’s 911 response times do not improve.”
Lena Howland, reporting for the Bay Area’s local ABC news affiliate, explains that while “agencies must answer 90% of calls within 15 seconds to receive state funding for 911 services,” Oakland “only met that standard for about 46% of calls.” That’s why, last month, Governor Newsom’s Office of Emergency Services, wrote a letter to the Oakland Police Department, warning “if they haven't shown improvement in a year, they could risk losing critical funding from the state or the ability to continue taking 911 calls, altogether.”
A prominent local lawyer called the response times “embarrassing,” and told ABC News that “car-jacking victims, victims of domestic violence, victims of rape, attempted murder … they need to be able to get somebody on the phone within 15 seconds, that is a reasonable amount of time.”
The best solution could be to remove 911 services from the police department altogether. The University of Chicago’s Urban Labs released an extremely detailed blueprint to “Transform 911,” which includes the recommendation that:
“Emergency Communications Centers be independent and equal public safety departments equipped to tap a diverse range of responses to best match the response to each emergency …. This requires removing the default to police or another system common in many communities when ECCs are housed within law enforcement or another emergency response agency.”
…
“In recent years, several jurisdictions have become independent, including Nashville and the District of Columbia, which both consolidated all emergency communications (e.g., police, fire, and EMS) into independent city agencies that report directly to their respective mayors. Other examples include New Orleans—whose ECC became independent after its struggles during Hurricane Katrina—as well as those in Tucson, Arizona, and Camden, New Jersey.”
One major benefit of an independent agency dispatching emergency calls is that it makes it easier for dispatchers to send the right expert to the right situation. For example, in Oakland, the city’s mobile crisis response unit, which is housed in the fire department, receives only 6% of its calls from 911—instead, the dispatchers, who are housed within the police department—default to sending law enforcement, which contributes to the city’s slow response times.