SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – District Attorney Chesa Boudin is accusing the city’s police department of using the DNA from victim’s rape kit to link her to a separate crime.
He is calling on local and state legislators to make this against the law.
During sexual assault investigations, victims voluntarily submit their own DNA and other evidence like bodily fluids and fingernail scrapings in order to help find the person who raped the victim.
Boudin says it is violent and dehumanizing to use this database to then accuse the victim of other crimes.
The district attorney says it’s hard enough to get victims to come forward and this practice treats victims like evidence not like human beings.
State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is working with Boudin and others to call for legislation to outlaw this practice.
Rape kits are extremely helpful in solving cases so the fear is that victims will be less likely to cooperate with police if they think they’re own DNA would be used against them later.
Police Chief Bill Scott has responded to the allegations saying police are reviewing the matter, but the department’s existing DNA policies are within state and national laws.
Scott says they never create disincentives for crime victims and if it’s true that DNA was collected from a victim and used to identify them as a suspect in another crime – the chief says he’s committed to ending the practice.
The chief did also say he has been informed of the possibility that the suspect in this case may have been identified through a DNA hit in a non-victim DNA database.
The allegations raised by Boudin come as both his office and the police department work on a memorandum of how the two agencies work investigate police use of force incidents.
Boudin says whatever disagreements they have – this practice needs to be addressed, and the police chief seems to agree.