FLINT, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Solving sexual assault crimes in Flint just got a little easier with the help from a grant from the Justice Department’s National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI). The goal of the grant program is to address the growing number of unsubmitted sexual assault kits in law enforcement custody and to hep provide resolution for victims when possible.

In submitting their grant request, the City of Flint Police Department, in partnership with the Genesee County Prosecutor’s Office and the YWCA of Greater Flint, requested “continued support to implement a comprehensive approach to unsubmitted sexual assault kits (SAKs) in the city of Flint with a multidisciplinary team and to optimize
victim-centered services that promote justice and healing.”

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The funding requested is needed to ensure that SAKs and criminal sexual conduct cases resulting from SAKs “receive expert attention, prioritization, expediency and site coordination.”

The grant request states that the city of Flint has “experienced significant financial hardship over the past two decades which led to backlogs of SAKs and an exorbitant number of sexual assault cases. This places enormous pressure on downsized criminal justice services to address the issue quickly while simultaneously investigating and
prosecuting new cases. Additional funding and staffing has become essential to address SAKs and to ensure justice for victims of sexual assault cases.”

In the past, the city of Flint has received funding from the BJA (Bureau of Justice Assistance) and DOJ which helped them test 770 SAKs which have identified potential suspects. The follow-up on these suspects will include running their names through CODIS in addition to using forensic genetic genealogy to find suspect identification and
location.

The City of Flint Sexual Assault Kit Initiative is committed to ensuring justice for these cases and the new grant will further that goal.

The grant request says that the funding will be used for the City of Flint SAKI unit with the help of the multidisciplinary team, to “modify and expand the comprehensive tracking of all SAKs including expanding to cold cases from 2015 through 2022. An estimated 20 cases will be closed in three years, while devoting important care and support to victims of Criminal Sexual Conduct in the City of Flint and Genesee County.

As the lead agency, the City of Flint Police Department SAKI Unit will be responsible for investigations and the overall technical, programmatic and financial oversight of the grant. The Genesee County Assistant Prosecutor for the SAKI Unit will handle cold case criminal sexual conduct prosecutions and the Victim Advocate with the YWCA will work with sexual assault victims.”