The Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) grant provides funding to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO), the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), and the Sexual Violence Center (SVC) to test all of the untested sexual assault kits in MPD’s custody and to provide victim advocacy, investigation, and prosecution resources for the cases that result from testing those kits. SAKI is a federal grant program under the Department of Justice to help states and local agencies address unsubmitted sexual assault kits in law enforcement custody and to help provide resolution for victims when possible.

In 2019, the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) discovered that it had over 1,700 unsubmitted kits that it had not previously reported in a 2015 statewide audit. HCAO and MPD developed a plan to test all of these kits and began delivering the highest priority kits to the BCA for testing. To increase capacity, MPD provided funding for additional DNA analysts and HCAO provided funding for additional DNA analysts as well as equipment and supplies to increase testing capacity. Even with this funding, however, the BCA reported that it would take years to finish testing all of the kits.

On behalf of the SAKI work group, MPD applied for SAKI grant funding in April 2020 and the project was awarded $2,000,000 in October 2020. HCAO is a sub-recipient of the grant award over the three-year period Oct 1, 2020 through September 30, 2023 and will receive a total of $1,480,000 for a site coordinator to manage the project, an investigator to investigate cases, an advocate to make contact with victims and provide victim-centered and trauma-informed advocacy, and an attorney to prosecute the cases arising out of these kits. Through the grant award to MPD, funding also will be provided to the BCA for additional DNA analysts who will complete testing of the kits by mid-2022 and the SVC, a community-based advocacy center, for advocacy support.

An overview of grant funding and staffing across all three years of the grant is outlined below. Please note that HCAO staff did not start work on the grant until January 1, 2021 while project coordination efforts were finalized with MPD, BCA and SVC.