The city does not provide any match.
Middletown Police Chief Earl Nelson said applying for the grant was based on the need for more capacity to store the city’s 368 sexual assault kits, not necessarily on an increase of sexual assault cases in the city.
In Ohio, a sexual assault examination kit includes any item that contains biological material that could be used to incriminate or exonerate any person for an offense or delinquent act.
Ohio law also states that any law enforcement agency must secure this biological evidence for a period of the 30 years if the offense or act remains unsolved.
Middletown police’s lead evidence technician currently undertakes biweekly trips to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI), which is about 70 miles from the city. The technician spends three hours on each trip.
The routine task has an annual cost of $2,791.62 for personnel expenses and $436.80 for fuel.
The expanded capabilities from the grant include streamlining this transportation process of sexual assault kits to the Ohio BCI Crime Lab and improving training by enrolling eight total evidence technicians and four detectives in a specialized Sexual Assault Investigation course, according to city documents.
The course focuses on the role of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners and covers best practices in interviewing victims and perpetrators, evidence collection and overall investigation strategies. The total cost for the course is $3,900.
Evidence storage facilities will also be expanded with 10 shelving units, 80 containers and four storage cabinets.
The initiative hopes to improve efficiency and investigative effectiveness to bolster the department’s service to the community and the handling of sexual assault cases.
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