A fundraiser organized to protest Colorado’s 568-day backlog for processing sexual assault forensic exams resulted in a $6,000 award to the state this week to induce officers to behave sooner to handle the issue.
The GoFundMe fundraiser — dubbed “Inform Governor Polis to Clear Colorado’s Rape Package Backlog!” — raised greater than $10,000. Organizer Kelsey Harbert stated she is working with totally different county crime labs to disperse the remaining cash to hurry up the processing of regionally held exams, generally often known as rape kits.
She thanked the donors for serving to with “this terrible downside that a whole lot of survivors and their family members are being affected by each day.”
The donation, which received’t clear the backlog by itself, is basically symbolic. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s plan, as seen in a report issued in February after the backlog was publicized, includes outsourcing 1,000 kits at an estimated price of $2,000 per package. The fundraiser represents neighborhood strain for the company to behave.
As of Might 31, the CBI had greater than 1,300 kits within the backlog.
“Seeing so many strangers donate and volunteer to assist us unfold the phrase jogged my memory that not everybody locations politics over individuals,” Harbert wrote in an e mail. “Most individuals acknowledge the inhumanity of this disaster and share our sense of urgency to handle it — even when the Governor and his administration don’t.”
In a press release Friday, the CBI stated it “sincerely appreciates the donations in the direction of a aim of decreasing the intercourse assault proof package backlog. We acknowledge how essential that is to victims.”
Harbert, who ran the fundraiser with survivor Angelique Perrin, estimates the donation pays for the CBI to course of six exams in-house, or for 3 to be despatched to an outdoor lab for processing. She stated state officers are assigning the cash a monitoring quantity to make sure it’s used to course of the kits.
She and Perrin plan to proceed the fundraiser till the state has cleared its backlog.
Officers with the CBI and the Colorado Division of Public Security confirmed in January that sexual assault victims have been ready an anticipated 550-plus days for the state to course of their kits. However the public acknowledgement got here solely after a survivor, Miranda Gordon, testified to having waited greater than 400 days for her personal package to be processed.
Officers stated the backlog began to construct in 2022, nevertheless it exploded when the Missy “Yvonne” Woods tampering scandal was found in late 2023, prompting the retesting of previous DNA samples.
CBI officers had anticipated to have the turnaround time for processing kits all the way down to 90 days, the state’s aim, by spring 2027. However on Friday, Deputy Director Lance Allen stated the company was on tempo to hit that aim by the tip of 2026.
“Due to this donation and the $2.5 million {dollars} requested by Gov. (Jared) Polis and allotted by Colorado lawmakers, the CBI expects to begin decreasing the backlog subsequent month and minimize the turnaround time in half by this time subsequent 12 months,” Allen stated within the CBI’s assertion.
He was referring to what was left of cash that had been earmarked for the processing of sexual assault forensic exams. Lawmakers within the latest session gave the CBI extra time to spend that cash, by way of mid-2026.
Division officers plan to outsource 1,000 kits over the subsequent 12 months to hurry up processing.
Throughout this 12 months’s session, lawmakers repeatedly criticized the CBI and the division for his or her dealing with of the issue. The CBI is a part of the division, which falls underneath Polis’ purview. Legislators additionally handed a number of legal guidelines, signed by Polis, so as to add oversight and accountability for the processing of the exams. Harbert usually testified and advocated for the measures.
One of many new legal guidelines, Senate Invoice 304, will create a brand new overview board within the Colorado Legal professional Common’s Workplace, together with different oversight measures. Polis signed the regulation in early June, calling the backlog “merely unacceptable.” That regulation was named after Gordon.
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