2024 City of Duluth Police Department SAKI Project

The City of Duluth proposes a final Sexual Assault Kit Initiative project to develop and implement a sustainability plan. The City of Duluth Police Department is the fourth largest municipal law enforcement department in Minnesota with an authorized strength of 158 sworn officers. The City of Duluth maintains a dedicated Sex Crimes, Abuse, and Neglect Unit to investigate reports of sexual violence.

The purpose of this proposal is to assess the site’s progress toward holistic sexual assault reform and draft the necessary policies and protocols to sustain promising research-based practices. The primary activities, to be conducted under the guidance of a Bureau of Justice Assistance funded training and technical assistance provider, include: identifying possible gaps in their policies, procedures, and documentation by inventorying all sexual assault related policies, procedures, and documentation; conducting interviews with current staff and reviewing sexual assault related materials to identifying gaps in service, legislation, training, and funding; and identifying program activities to be sustained and determining how to prioritize identified gaps. The team will also maintain regular multidisciplinary team meetings and continue to address the remaining downstream case activities (under 20 percent) associated with the testing of previously unsubmitted SAKs.

The expected outcome of this project is a sustainability plan that includes revised policies and protocols outlining the handling of SAKs, victim engagement, multidisciplinary group management, cold case investigations, training, and public information sharing. This project’s intended beneficiaries are victim-survivors of sexual assault in Duluth and its surrounding communities.