Resources, Resources, and More Resources

• In Event: Policy Panel: Challenges and Workarounds in Testing, Investigating, and Prosecuting ‘Backlogged’ Sexual Assault Kits: Findings from the BJA’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative

Abstract

Testing, investigating, and prosecuting thousands of backlogged SAKs is a massive undertaking that taxes already strained city, county, and state resources. Additionally, this process involves the coordination of resources from the entire system—including but not limited to crime labs, police/sheriffs, victim advocates, prosecutors, and criminal courts. This presentation will focus on the process the Cuyahoga County SAK Task Force (Task Force) forged (and continues to forge) in coordinating, acquiring, and utilizing resources. As is common, at the beginning of the process the Task Force vastly underestimated the amount of resources necessary for this type of undertaking. The presentation will also include a description of the types and estimates of resource needs based upon data collected by the Task Force, such as staffing needs (e.g., number of prosecutors, investigators, and victim advocates), trainings, data management and coordination, and estimating a completion date.

Author

• Brett Kyker, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office