Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI)

The Office of Justice Programs has awarded more than $376 million in grant funding to enhance state, local and tribal law enforcement operations and reinforce public safety efforts in jurisdictions across the United States. Several BJA programs are included in the announcement, including more than $252 million in Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program funding awards, $40 million in Sexual Assault Kit Initiative funding awards...

BJA has awarded almost $43 million via 32 grants to support the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI), an effort to strengthen jurisdictions’ capacity to act on evidence resulting from sexual assault kits. Learn more about SAKI and the FY 2018 awards.

When Cuyahoga County, Ohio, embarked on the testing of nearly 7,000 backlogged sexual assault kits (SAKs) in early 2013, metaphors from Greek and Roman mythology abounded in the Cleveland media coverage – 'Herculean task' and 'Pandora's box' chief among them.

Five years on, now that the backlog has been largely cleared, the sense of dread associated with those words has been replaced by one of...