A woman is planning to sue the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) after it allegedly used DNA from her rape kit to link her to an unrelated property crime, according to an investigation by the San Francisco Chronicle.
According to the Chronicle, the woman’s DNA was collected as part of medical and forensic examinations in 2016 after she alleged that she had been raped. Her DNA was kept on file and used to connect her to another crime, prompting her arrest. She was eventually released after the charges against her were dropped.
The Chronicle, which is withholding the name of the woman to protect her privacy, reported:
The woman’s interview comes nearly a month after District Attorney Chesa Boudin revealed that the Police Department’s crime lab stored DNA from rape victims indefinitely in a database. The database, Boudin said, was regularly searched to identify suspects in crimes.
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The revelation prompted a national outcry, particularly from sexual assault victim advocates, who said the practice would have a chilling effect on reporting the crimes to law enforcement.
The San Francisco Police Department is conducting an audit to determine how many other victims could have been identified or arrested through this practice. Police Chief Bill Scott said he supports legislation that would end the practice in San Francisco and elsewhere and that the department has already implemented an interim policy change.
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According to internal emails reviewed by The Chronicle, the Police Department’s new policy does not remove victims’ DNA profiles from the searchable database. Instead, it states that if DNA from a victim’s rape kit matched DNA found at another crime scene, analysts would not be allowed to share this information with anyone outside the crime lab.
Boudin and the police are currently at loggerheads over the prosecution of officers for alleged brutality. One officer, Terrance Stangel, was acquitted this week of assaulting a suspect after Boudin’s office was accused of withholding evidence.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.