Washington law enforcement agencies to receive funding to expand storage of sexual assault kits

More than a dozen Seattle-area law enforcement agencies — including police departments in Bothell and Redmond — will receive funding for refrigeration units meant for storing evidence from sexual assault investigations, according to state Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

“More storage means more evidence can be tested, and more crimes can be solved,” Ferguson said in a news release. “These resources will bring justice to survivors.”

The money is being allocated under Ferguson’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, a federally funded program his office started in 2017 to address the state’s huge backlog of sexual assault kits. An estimated $177,000 in federal dollars will be distributed to 53 city police departments and county sheriff’s offices across Washington, the news release said.

The money is meant to help local law enforcement agencies comply with a 2020 state law that requires evidence from unreported sexual assaults be stored for at least 20 years. Kits from unreported assaults are taken at hospitals and then turned over to law enforcement agencies for storage. They can be used as evidence later should a victim choose to file a report.

The 2020 law requires evidence from reported assaults be stored for 100 years.

In partnership with the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, Ferguson’s office asked local law enforcement agencies to determine how much new cold storage equipment they would need to comply with the law. Of the state’s 260 local agencies, 53 said they would need more than they had.

Those agencies will purchase the storage units themselves, but will be reimbursed by the state. Price estimates submitted to the state by those agencies range from $300 to $10,000.

King County agencies that will be reimbursed for their purchases include the Black Diamond, Kent, Kirkland and Redmond police departments. The Brier, Lynnwood, Mill Creek, Monroe and Edmonds police departments in Snohomish County — along with the Bothell Police Department, whose jurisdiction includes parts of King and Snohomish counties — will also be reimbursed. The same is true for several Pierce County agencies. Those include the Bonney Lake, Fife, Lakewood, Orting, Puyallup and Gig Harbor police departments.

State leaders have taken several steps in recent years to reduce the backlog of untested sexual assault kits in Washington, which reached roughly 10,000 in 2015. That year, the state Legislature directed millions of dollars to the State Patrol’s crime lab, which oversees all DNA evidence testing in Washington, to help with processing.

In 2017, Ferguson’s office formed the state’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative after receiving a $3 million federal grant for such efforts. His office dedicated half of that grant, the maximum amount allowed, to pay for more testing.

In 2019, Ferguson’s office received another $2.5 million in federal funding for use in addressing the backlog. That same year, the state Legislature authorized funding for the construction of a DNA lab in Vancouver that, when complete, will help the state’s crime lab process a higher volume of DNA cases at a faster rate.

Thanks to these efforts, the state’s crime lab has tested 5,278 backlogged kits since 2015, the news release said. That has led to 1,315 positive DNA matches, it said.