Jay Inslee’s administration is already reeling from scandals and controversy billowing out of the Department of Corrections and the Department of Transportation, and now as we end 2015, it appears the “green” governor may have another one coming out of State Patrol.
The Patrol was already in the news week for the high turnover and low morale among officers, and now the Yakima Herald reports that “unless additional funding can be found, managers at the Washington State Patrol crime labs say they won’t be able to make a dent in a backlog of thousands of untested rape kits.”
Untested rape kits have “delayed some sexual-assault trials”, but fortunately “the crime labs have cooperated by speeding up tests when results were urgently needed.”
Testing the kits is crucial for law enforcement, said Yakima police Capt. Jeff Schneider, because “an unknown suspect can become a known suspect after the test is completed.”
It appears the main problem is one of allocating resources by State Patrol management. The legislature gave the Patrol an extra $2.75 million in the current budget to handle the increase in rape kits turned in due to changes in state laws. However, the Patrol had asked for twice that amount.
We can anticipate more coverage of this situation in the new year, as the patrol is asked what it is spending money on that is more important than processing the rape kits.
