Rep. Schiff Testifies at House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
Congressional Desk
June 07, 2010
Focused on the need to eliminate sexual assault kit backlogs
Washington, DC – Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) testified at a House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security that focused on the need to eliminate sexual assault kit backlogs in Los Angeles and across the nation. The week before, Rep. Schiff sent a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Holder asking them to consider immediate steps to ease the technical review burden for the LAPD.
"We know with a statistical certainty that delaying the testing of rape kits will mean that we miss the opportunity to take people off the street who have committed rape or murder and in the interim, these people will go on to murder and rape others. That is simply unacceptable," Rep. Schiff said. "DNA is the most powerful law-enforcement innovation since the fingerprint, but only if we use it to its fullest potential. It is time we take the lessons learned in the years since the passage of the Debbie Smith Act and turn them into new policies to speed the processing of rape kits."
Rep. Schiff proposed an amendment to the Debbie Smith Act reauthorization in 2008, which would have put in place a 10 percent bonus in Byrne-JAG grants for states to collect DNA profiles from anyone arrested for certain serious felonies. It passed the House with a strong bipartisan vote, but the clock ran out in the Senate. Rep. Schiff´s amendment was the basis for the recently passed House bill that will make "Katie´s Law" the national standard, encouraging states to maximize the potential of forensic DNA to solve and prevent violent crimes by collecting a DNA sample upon arrest at the same time as fingerprints -- for certain felony crimes. Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act (H.R. 4614) co-sponsored by Rep. Schiff is the product of years of work and debate in the Congress, and it will help law enforcement use DNA to solve crimes and it will keep in place existing civil liberties protections.
Below please find Rep. Schiff´s full testimony before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security as prepared for delivery:
"Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, thank you for calling this important hearing and inviting me to participate.
"There is no reliable accounting for what the sexual assault kit backlog stands at around the country, or even a consensus as to what constitutes a backlogged kit. However, we know that sexual assault kits are sitting on the shelves for months and years, and that crime labs around the nation are struggling to do more with less. And we know that as a result, rapists are walking the streets and justice for their victims is being denied.
"I´m sorry to say Los Angeles knows only too well about rape kit backlogs. In 2008, a full accounting of the rape kits sitting in storage for more than 30 days revealed that the backlog stood at over 13,000 kits between the City and County labs. A breakdown of that backlog revealed that over 200 kits in the County alone were older than 10 years, and therefore beyond the statute of limitations for a rape case, even if a positive hit was discovered. Los Angeles is far from alone. Many other cities have these backlogs, whether their citizens know it or not.
"When I started working to address the Los Angeles backlog, I found that it is not as simple as putting more money into the crime lab. New forensic scientists have to be hired, trained, and then they have to have the lab space and resources to do their jobs. The process from hiring and training a scientist to the point he or she can process a rape kit can takes years to accomplish. To make an immediate dent in the backlog, the City and County both employed the capacity of private labs that had the manpower and expertise to process these kits immediately. Both the City and County have outsourced thousands of kits. Were it not for that option, closing the backlog would have taken years longer, if it was possible at all.
"There is a simple step that we could immediately take action to speed the processing of sexual assault evidence and improve the efficiency of public labs. The National DNA Index System rules govern what can be uploaded into the national database. The rules require that any crime scene evidence outsourced by a private lab must undergo a technical review by the public lab, which is a manual rechecking of the private lab´s work. The technical review of each kit is a time-intensive process. In fact, the Federal government assisted the City of Los Angeles with $500,000 this year that will go entirely towards paying the overtime for forensic scientists who are conducting the technical reviews. For several years now, I have been calling on the FBI to evaluate this rule in light of the evidence that it is unnecessary and burdensome requirement on overstretched public labs.
"There have been some suggestions that the calls to look at the technical review standards are being driven by the private labs. It´s simply not the case. If you don´t believe me, go to Los Angeles and talk to Mayor Villaraigosa or Chief Charlie Beck or Sheriff Lee Baca, and ask them about the impact of technical review on their budgets and the turnaround time for backlogged rape kits.
"Let me be clear – this is not about private labs versus public labs. I come from a law enforcement background as a federal prosecutor, and I have no desire to remove law enforcement functions from public crime labs. I strongly support building the capacity and efficiency of public labs so they can quickly process DNA. I am opposed to opening CODIS to any private entity. But an overbroad and cumbersome technical review requirement is hampering law enforcement´s ability to take dangerous people off the street.
"I was pleased when, in March of this year, the FBI announced that they were looking at a technical review rule change and studying possible alterations. There are a range of options on the table for the 100 percent manual review that preserve the integrity of CODIS. Among these are expert systems that can automate the technical review process. We can also require a higher degree of accreditation for private labs and require them to undergo regular audits. I believe though the best option would be to require the technical review after a hit in CODIS. What we should not do is continue to hamstring public labs that need immediate capacity for law enforcement that needs to know whether a profile that has been gathered from a rape kit matches a suspect already in CODIS.
"As eager as I am to hear more about the intention of the FBI and the NDIS board to modify the existing rules, I am concerned that the timing will do little to relieve the immediate problem faced by Los Angeles. The LAPD has over 2000 evidence kits that have returned from the private labs, but are still awaiting upload into CODIS because of several hours it takes a lab technician to perform the technical review. This is despite the fact that in the thousands of kits in which the technical review has already been performed, they haven´t located a single error that impacted the integrity of the database or would have resulted in a false match.
"For that reason, last week I sent a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Holder asking them to consider immediate steps to ease the technical review burden on LAPD. The FBI is considering options for pilot programs to test the efficacy of alternatives to the 100 percent manual technical review requirement, and I believe that LA is a perfect venue for a pilot project. Nine other members of the Los Angeles Congressional delegation joined me in requesting this pilot. We believe that LA can prove the concept of a new technical review regime, while speeding the day that the LA backlog is truly closed.
"In closing, Mr. Chairman, if we are able to accelerate the uploading of these samples that have already been reviewed in Los Angeles, statistically we know that delaying the testing of rape kits will mean that we miss the opportunity to take people off the street who have committed rape or murder and in the interim, these people will go on to murder and rape others.
"I hope this hearing is just the beginning of this Committee´s work on DNA and the rape kit backlog in the time we have remaining this Congress. It is time we take the lessons learned in the years since the passage of the Debbie Smith Act and turn them into new policies to speed the processing of rape kits. DNA is the most powerful law enforcement innovation, but only if we use it to its fullest potential. I thank you for calling this hearing, and I look forward to working with you on these issues."
Washington, DC – Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) testified at a House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security that focused on the need to eliminate sexual assault kit backlogs in Los Angeles and across the nation. The week before, Rep. Schiff sent a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Holder asking them to consider immediate steps to ease the technical review burden for the LAPD.
"We know with a statistical certainty that delaying the testing of rape kits will mean that we miss the opportunity to take people off the street who have committed rape or murder and in the interim, these people will go on to murder and rape others. That is simply unacceptable," Rep. Schiff said. "DNA is the most powerful law-enforcement innovation since the fingerprint, but only if we use it to its fullest potential. It is time we take the lessons learned in the years since the passage of the Debbie Smith Act and turn them into new policies to speed the processing of rape kits."
Rep. Schiff proposed an amendment to the Debbie Smith Act reauthorization in 2008, which would have put in place a 10 percent bonus in Byrne-JAG grants for states to collect DNA profiles from anyone arrested for certain serious felonies. It passed the House with a strong bipartisan vote, but the clock ran out in the Senate. Rep. Schiff´s amendment was the basis for the recently passed House bill that will make "Katie´s Law" the national standard, encouraging states to maximize the potential of forensic DNA to solve and prevent violent crimes by collecting a DNA sample upon arrest at the same time as fingerprints -- for certain felony crimes. Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act (H.R. 4614) co-sponsored by Rep. Schiff is the product of years of work and debate in the Congress, and it will help law enforcement use DNA to solve crimes and it will keep in place existing civil liberties protections.
Below please find Rep. Schiff´s full testimony before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security as prepared for delivery:
"Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, thank you for calling this important hearing and inviting me to participate.
"There is no reliable accounting for what the sexual assault kit backlog stands at around the country, or even a consensus as to what constitutes a backlogged kit. However, we know that sexual assault kits are sitting on the shelves for months and years, and that crime labs around the nation are struggling to do more with less. And we know that as a result, rapists are walking the streets and justice for their victims is being denied.
"I´m sorry to say Los Angeles knows only too well about rape kit backlogs. In 2008, a full accounting of the rape kits sitting in storage for more than 30 days revealed that the backlog stood at over 13,000 kits between the City and County labs. A breakdown of that backlog revealed that over 200 kits in the County alone were older than 10 years, and therefore beyond the statute of limitations for a rape case, even if a positive hit was discovered. Los Angeles is far from alone. Many other cities have these backlogs, whether their citizens know it or not.
"When I started working to address the Los Angeles backlog, I found that it is not as simple as putting more money into the crime lab. New forensic scientists have to be hired, trained, and then they have to have the lab space and resources to do their jobs. The process from hiring and training a scientist to the point he or she can process a rape kit can takes years to accomplish. To make an immediate dent in the backlog, the City and County both employed the capacity of private labs that had the manpower and expertise to process these kits immediately. Both the City and County have outsourced thousands of kits. Were it not for that option, closing the backlog would have taken years longer, if it was possible at all.
"There is a simple step that we could immediately take action to speed the processing of sexual assault evidence and improve the efficiency of public labs. The National DNA Index System rules govern what can be uploaded into the national database. The rules require that any crime scene evidence outsourced by a private lab must undergo a technical review by the public lab, which is a manual rechecking of the private lab´s work. The technical review of each kit is a time-intensive process. In fact, the Federal government assisted the City of Los Angeles with $500,000 this year that will go entirely towards paying the overtime for forensic scientists who are conducting the technical reviews. For several years now, I have been calling on the FBI to evaluate this rule in light of the evidence that it is unnecessary and burdensome requirement on overstretched public labs.
"There have been some suggestions that the calls to look at the technical review standards are being driven by the private labs. It´s simply not the case. If you don´t believe me, go to Los Angeles and talk to Mayor Villaraigosa or Chief Charlie Beck or Sheriff Lee Baca, and ask them about the impact of technical review on their budgets and the turnaround time for backlogged rape kits.
"Let me be clear – this is not about private labs versus public labs. I come from a law enforcement background as a federal prosecutor, and I have no desire to remove law enforcement functions from public crime labs. I strongly support building the capacity and efficiency of public labs so they can quickly process DNA. I am opposed to opening CODIS to any private entity. But an overbroad and cumbersome technical review requirement is hampering law enforcement´s ability to take dangerous people off the street.
"I was pleased when, in March of this year, the FBI announced that they were looking at a technical review rule change and studying possible alterations. There are a range of options on the table for the 100 percent manual review that preserve the integrity of CODIS. Among these are expert systems that can automate the technical review process. We can also require a higher degree of accreditation for private labs and require them to undergo regular audits. I believe though the best option would be to require the technical review after a hit in CODIS. What we should not do is continue to hamstring public labs that need immediate capacity for law enforcement that needs to know whether a profile that has been gathered from a rape kit matches a suspect already in CODIS.
"As eager as I am to hear more about the intention of the FBI and the NDIS board to modify the existing rules, I am concerned that the timing will do little to relieve the immediate problem faced by Los Angeles. The LAPD has over 2000 evidence kits that have returned from the private labs, but are still awaiting upload into CODIS because of several hours it takes a lab technician to perform the technical review. This is despite the fact that in the thousands of kits in which the technical review has already been performed, they haven´t located a single error that impacted the integrity of the database or would have resulted in a false match.
"For that reason, last week I sent a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Holder asking them to consider immediate steps to ease the technical review burden on LAPD. The FBI is considering options for pilot programs to test the efficacy of alternatives to the 100 percent manual technical review requirement, and I believe that LA is a perfect venue for a pilot project. Nine other members of the Los Angeles Congressional delegation joined me in requesting this pilot. We believe that LA can prove the concept of a new technical review regime, while speeding the day that the LA backlog is truly closed.
"In closing, Mr. Chairman, if we are able to accelerate the uploading of these samples that have already been reviewed in Los Angeles, statistically we know that delaying the testing of rape kits will mean that we miss the opportunity to take people off the street who have committed rape or murder and in the interim, these people will go on to murder and rape others.
"I hope this hearing is just the beginning of this Committee´s work on DNA and the rape kit backlog in the time we have remaining this Congress. It is time we take the lessons learned in the years since the passage of the Debbie Smith Act and turn them into new policies to speed the processing of rape kits. DNA is the most powerful law enforcement innovation, but only if we use it to its fullest potential. I thank you for calling this hearing, and I look forward to working with you on these issues."