Colorado lawmakers agreed Wednesday to free up $3 million to address the state's backlog in rape kit testing. Lawmakers had been at an impasse over how to hold the Colorado Bureau of Investigation accountable for delays.
The decision in the state House of Representatives allows the CBI to shift money that had originally been dedicated to resolving a related scandal — the manipulation of test results by a longtime forensic scientist — and instead spend it on drawing down the backlog. The CBI estimated that, over two years, they could cut the backlog to 100 days.
But skeptics in the General Assembly said even that is too long. They also demanded that the CBI present a clear plan to bring down the turnaround time on tests before they would agree to release the funds.
"We need to hold the department to account and do much better," Rep. Shannon Bird, D-Westminster, told reporters earlier this week.
It currently takes about a year and a half to get rape kit results back from the CBI. State lawmakers have been united in wanting to shorten that wait.
But there have been differences over whether more money alone will help the CBI deal with the problem. Earlier this month, a panel of lawmakers voted to withhold the money until the agency showed a plan, but they were swiftly overruled by the state Senate.
Still, holdouts like Bird have remained in the state House, and as recently as Tuesday, they appeared headed for a showdown. But on Wednesday, Rep. Jenny Willford, D-Northglenn, presented a compromise: Give the CBI what it’s asking for, but require the agency to report regularly on how it’s using the money.
"Does this absolve CBI of any accountability? Absolutely not," she said.
Willford herself is waiting on results from CBI on a rape kit. She says she was sexually assaulted by a ride share driver a year ago.
"I'm sure that, if I were in their shoes, I would probably be doing the same thing," Willford said of other lawmakers. "But I’m not in their shoes. I’m a survivor, and those are the shoes that I walk in."
Willford's proposal would require the CBI to report monthly to the legislature on how it’s spending the money, and to create an online dashboard where the public can see how long the wait for rape test kit results is. It also calls on CBI to hire outside labs to help — an idea Bird and others have pushed for.
Willford’s proposal still needs to clear a few more votes, including the Senate. But it has received unanimous support in the House, including from those CBI skeptics.
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