SEATTLE — The City of Seattle is moving this week to lift a legal logjam that kept the state from testing DNA collected from municipal sex crimes. The goal is to increase the chances of catching serial sex offenders who've committed unsolved crimes.
KIRO 7's Amy Clancy was the first to reveal the legal roadblock 3 years ago.
She found that since 2014, the State Patrol DNA lab wouldn't test samples from the city, because city ordinances didn't conform closely enough to state law for the same crimes.
“It has been a 5-year long haul all in the name of public safety,” said City Attorney Pete Holmes in an exclusive interview with KIRO 7 Monday.
He’s partnered with City Council member Lorena Gonzalez to introduce legislation this week making the necessary changes. City Council will start making the changes this week.
“The victims that on faith saw prosecutions through to conviction, they should know that the DNA samples from their attacker, their convicted attacker, are now going to be entered into a national database,” Holmes said.
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That's welcome news for Leah Griffin, a citizen advocate for her fellow survivors of sexual assault, even though her case is not directly affected.
“It's important to begin testing the municipal DNA because as we're testing the 11,000 of those untested rape kits in Washington, we're finding that there are perpetrators who have committed multiple assaults and we don't necessarily have a name to put to those offenders,” she said.
In Seattle, DNA is collected when a person is convicted of fourth-degree sexually motivated assault, stalking, harassment, indecent exposure, patronizing a prostitute or communication with a minor for immoral purposes.
Griffin is pleased with Monday's development but says there is still more to be done to help survivors get justice.
“There's a lot of work to do with the access to nurse examiners in hospitals, there’s a lot of work to do as far as training in trauma-informed interviewing techniques for everyone from police to judges who we see often victim-blaming survivors. We have a lot of work to do to make the system less traumatizing and more effective for survivors.”
In a statement, Council member Gonzalez said, "it’s about fulfilling our obligation to do everything possible to get closure for victims."