Police commission reviews SVU report on sexual‑assault kits and survivor notification

The San Francisco Police Commission on July 13 received a semiannual report from the Special Victims Unit (SVU) on its handling of sexual‑assault evidence kits and on procedures for notifying survivors of forensic results.

The presentation, delivered by Captain Una Bailey and Lieutenant Duderoff, summarized the unit's workflow from a survivor's choice to have a kit collected through transfer to the Property Control Division and testing in the crime lab. The SVU said kits are picked up daily and the unit aims to transfer kits to property or lab custody within one day, two days at most; a written unit order (Special Victims Unit Order 16‑3) now documents pick‑up and chain‑of‑custody steps.

Commissioners pressed SVU staff about survivor notification. Captain Bailey said the unit's practice is to notify survivors in person when there is a CODIS hit and to avoid naming any person to the survivor; notifications can also occur by phone, email, U.S. mail or through the district attorney's (DA) office when a case is already in prosecutorial hands. Bailey told the Commission that the unit will clarify at initial contact whether the survivor wants notifications and will record that preference in the investigation chronology.

Commission members asked whether the department will go back and contact survivors of older cases that fall within the statute of limitations. Bailey and other SVU staff said a retroactive effort is feasible but time‑consuming and would require a specific plan; the unit recommended prioritizing cases that remain within the statute of limitations and promised to return with a plan in the next report.

The forensic science briefing described testing timelines that shape notification. The Forensic Services Division reported a statutory target of 120 days to develop and upload a valid CODIS profile; current averages run about 130–140 days. The department said it outsources kits when in‑house capacity cannot meet deadlines (private labs average ~30 days turnaround) and that it is hiring additional DNA criminalists (five immediately, with a plan to field more analysts over the coming months) to reduce delays.

Commissioners also reviewed the report's data fields and disposition codes used for case clearances and DA dispositions (for example, code 24 indicating lack of evidence, and 24L for lack of corroboration). SVU staff said the public spreadsheet is redacted to protect survivors and that internal tracking will be improved as unit orders and a new case‑tracking software are adopted.

The Commission asked SVU to return with a concrete plan for retroactive survivor outreach for cases within the statute of limitations and for clearer reporting fields that show when survivors were actually contacted. The department said it will begin doing daily tracking going forward and will propose a retroactive contact plan in its next submission.

The Commission closed the item by thanking the OCC and SVU for producing the first report required under Commission Resolution 16‑28.

The Commission scheduled the department's annual report and said it expects a follow‑up briefing within months.