IDAHO, USA — Nearly 10 years after the Idaho Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (ISAKI) was founded in order to examine, track and process sexual assault evidence kits, they're still working to expand their efforts -- and that includes educating police on how to speak to survivors of trauma.
In a Thursday meeting, the ISAKI team discussed what resources they're developing in order to train law enforcement to better understand sexual assault survivors, how to speak to them and how to recognize trauma responses within the mind and body.
"We're trying to help them to do a better job of engaging with the survivors of these crimes, to understand that they're dealing with neurobiology issues, like how the trauma affects the brain when there's a traumatic event," Matthew Gamette said, who is the Idaho State Police Forensic Services Laboratory System Director. "We're helping them to understand some of those things so that their treatment of the victim or the survivor is appropriate in that moment, that they understand what they're going through. So that their responses -- what would seem uncommon to an individual as a response -- they recognize those signs so that they don't think that the victim is lying, for example. They recognize that that's just a response to trauma."
The ISAKI group consists of volunteers from every walk of life, it seems. There are nurses, Title IX representatives, victim witness coordinators, college professors, DNA analysts, retired law enforcement, current law enforcement, Idaho Department of Corrections employees and more. They've worked to make sure survivors didn't have to pay for testing of evidence and medical exams and have also been tracking each sexual assault kit at each stage of testing.
Sen. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, also attended the Thursday meeting. She interacted with the group to discuss how ISAKI can bring in best practice advice for coordinated teams within the Treasure Valley, and how those on college campuses, where sexual assault can be more prevalent, can be included in the conversation and trainings.
The team has developed eight training courses so far on the topics of sexual assault and trauma. These topics include human trafficking, male victims of sexual assault, vicarious trauma, nurses working with survivors, school resource officer training on response and reporting, informed responses on college campuses, understanding sexual assault medical treatment, understanding perpetrator and victim realities, Title IX best practices and others.
The team said in the meeting they need Idaho police officers to attend these trainings -- they are offered online for rural law enforcement and in person, for better accessibility. Gamette said they struggled trying to get rural police agencies to host these trainings. As of Wednesday, the ISAKI trainings, with help from Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training, have recorded 62 completions.
"We went after them and said, 'we need you to register your officers,'" Gamette told the team. Additionally, Gamette said they aren't getting the engagement they need within the Treasure Valley. This isn't because officers don't want the training, he said, but because it's hard to work around an agency who is responsible for enforcing the law 24 hours a day.
"What I found from law enforcement in Idaho is they are clamoring; they are eagerly engaging with these courses when they can get access to them. So, the first thing for us was identifying the courses they need," Gamette said. "In some of these smaller agencies where we have two or three officers, they're not able to send all of those officers to training for an eight-hour course. It just doesn't work."
It's a resource issue the team is working with. But ISAKI is trying to encourage officers who have two hours of free time to log on and take the online courses if they can't be there in person. In larger agencies, ISAKI has to make sure these types of courses fit in with the officer's training window and also match with what they are authorized to take as part of their position.
The trainings are also free. And the more that law enforcement, college campuses, health departments, nurses and others bring their concerns to ISAKI, the more ISAKI will work to fill in the gaps, Gamette said. It's one of the most effective resources in the state to address sexual assault response, he told KTVB.
"The survivor's body is the crime scene," Gamette said. "This is a traumatic experience for a survivor of one of these crimes, and we're bringing everything that we can to help that individual from a victim advocate, a law enforcement officer and a nurse that's highly trained to do these. It's so important to train all of those people to do a good job, to not only be able to prosecute the crime, but also to be able to treat that individual well with compassion with care and help them in their recovery."
Watch more Local News:
See the latest news from around the Treasure Valley and the Gem State in our YouTube playlist:
HERE ARE MORE WAYS TO GET NEWS FROM KTVB:
Download the KTVB News Mobile App
Apple iOS: Click here to download
Google Play: Click here to download
Watch news reports for FREE on YouTube: KTVB YouTube channel
Stream Live for FREE on ROKU: Add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching 'KTVB'.
Stream Live for FREE on FIRE TV: Search ‘KTVB’ and click ‘Get’ to download.