WASHINGTON — D.C. currently keeps sexual assault evidence kits for two to three years. DC Councilmember Charles Allen is pushing a bill that would keep them indefinitely.
Keeping the kits provides needed evidence should an assault survivor wait years after their attack to press charges. D.C., which worked these past years to eliminate its kit testing backlog, learned from jurisdictions around the country that keeping this evidence helps solve future crimes.
"When we were able to upload the DNA and the analysis, that also goes into a national database because sometimes you have serial rapists and being able to link them to other cases will also help from accountability. And if we don't preserve that kit, if we don't maintain it, we're never able to get that done," said Allen.
Sexual assault evidence kits are stored at MedStar Washington Hospital, in a basement storage room. The hospital told the council it could run out of room to store additional kits by December. The bill calls for DC's Department of Forensic Sciences to come up with a permanent storage solution. In a council hearing Monday, DC's Deputy Mayor for Justice and Public Safety Lindsey Appiah says the Mayor's Office does not support the bill.
"If we're talking about vastly expanding the capacity at the cost of millions, that is certainly a discussion we can have, but that is the reality. It would be irresponsible of us to say we support this bill as currently written when we know that neither agency has the capacity to effectuate it," Appiah told Allen during testimony.
Allen questioned Appiah, saying, "The folks who actually do this already say we would have at an absolute maximum 150 'shoeboxes' per year. It would cost millions and millions of dollars to store 150 'shoeboxes?'"
WUSA9 asked the Deputy Mayor's office for more comment. They declined.
"I was deeply disappointed that rather than coming in with a partnership and an immediate yes, while there's some logistics issues, let's figure those out. It didn't feel like there was a true recognition of how serious this issue is. This isn't a bureaucratic piece of legislation. This is about helping catch rapists, helping hold accountable sexual violence," Allen told WUSA9.
Allen still hopes to work with the Mayor's office on a solution if the evidence bill is passed.