XPost: talk.politics.guns, memphis.general, talk.politics.misc   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics   
   From: kamala.harris.encourages@black.crime   
      
   A sex crimes detective with the Memphis Police Department will keep her job   
   despite leaking confidential investigative files to the family of a rape   
   suspect, the Commercial Appeal reported last week. Before Detective Ouita   
   Knowlton became the subject of    
   a criminal investigation, she was the supervisor of the DNA Unit, which was   
   formed in 2014 to investigate long-neglected […]   
      
   https://media.tegna-media.com/assets/WATN/images/6acf1a5a-ac45-4   
   41-ac0c-55528ba41b90/6acf1a5a-ac45-4b41-ac0c-55528ba41b90_1920x1080.jpg   
   Lt. Ouita Knowlton_1493157844610.jpg   
      
   A sex crimes detective with the Memphis Police Department will keep her job   
   despite leaking confidential investigative files to the family of a rape   
   suspect, the Commercial Appeal reported last week. Before Detective Ouita   
   Knowlton became the subject of    
   a criminal investigation, she was the supervisor of the DNA Unit, which was   
   formed in 2014 to investigate long-neglected rape cases involving untested   
   rape kits.   
      
   A rape kit contains physical evidence collected from the body of a rape   
   victim. In addition to using DNA to identify an unknown perpetrator, the   
   results from testing can be used to corroborate or refute statements from the   
   victim or suspect.   
      
   Law enforcement encourages victims to submit to forensic examination as soon   
   as possible after an assault to maximize the chances of evidence recovery.   
   Exams, which typically last four to six hours, can be invasive, painful, and   
   traumatizing for victims.    
   The evidence collected varies depending on what happened during the assault,   
   but rape kits generally include swabs, test tubes, microscopic slides, and   
   evidence collection envelopes for hairs and fibers. The victim is swabbed for   
   any biological matter    
   that may contain the perpetrator’s DNA (e.g., skin, saliva, semen). The   
   examiner photographs any bruising or other injuries and collects the   
   victim’s clothing. The rape kit and other crime scene evidence, such as   
   bedding, is transferred to law    
   enforcement to log into its evidence facility. Then it is sent to a crime lab   
   for DNA testing to solve the case.   
      
   But instead of sending rape kits to crime labs, police departments nationwide   
   have often stashed rape kits wherever they could find space: in evidence   
   warehouses, precinct closets, squad car trunks, some in environments with   
   DNA-degrading high heat and    
   moisture.   
      
   In 2009, a Human Rights Watch report exposed over 12,000 untested rape kits in   
   law enforcement storage throughout Los Angeles County. That same year,   
   inquiries by the Cleveland Plain Dealer about the failure of law enforcement   
   to stop serial rapist and    
   mass murderer Anthony Sowell spurredthe city’s police department to announce   
   plans to process over 4,000 untested rape kits of its own. Also in 2009, after   
   the FBI took control of the Detroit Police Department property room, officials   
   revealed over 8,   
   000 rape kits in police storage had never been submitted to a lab. In 2013,   
   the Memphis Police Department admitted it had failed to test over 12,000 rape   
   kits. In 2014, a New Orleans Police Commander who had been lauded in 2011 for   
   testing at least 800    
   unprocessed rape kits revealed the department had failed to submit more than   
   400 rape kits collected since 2011. In 2017, the Wayne County Prosecuting   
   Attorney’s office admitted at least 555 rape kits collected by Detroit   
   Police since th   
    e 2009 public outcry weren’t tested until 2015, a fact that was never   
   announced to the public.   
      
      
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