Law to stop second violation by law

The decrees of principle have been made by our state lawmakers, but nothing much will change unless the cops on the streets and prosecutors in court accept the ideas.

News-Democrat reporters visited 32 courthouses and waded through a lot of human misery to distill one disturbing fact: The fraction of rape victims who tell police about their attacks can expect there will be no prosecution in seven of every 10 of those cases. The series of stories they told in February 2015 were called Violation of Trust and caught the attention of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Madigan had no authority over the 102 independently elected state’s attorneys in Illinois, but she used her bully pulpit and pulled them together to study the issue and come up with ways to fix it. Those recommendations just became law.

Police, dispatchers and other first responders must undergo training so they better handle sexual assault victims. Every victim report must lead to a written report. The Illinois State Police Crime Lab must better inform victims of the status of their rape kit tests. The time for victims to consent to evidence testing was extended from 14 days to five years.

Likely the most important change is the police training. Again, nothing changes unless the cops on the streets make this a priority.

Better and more complete reporting will help more cases be prosecuted or expose the officers, departments or prosecutors who are not keeping their oaths to protect and serve.

Our community owes a debt to those women whose names and faces accompanied their stories. That debt is repaid by ensuring the next victims to come forward see outcomes that dismantle that seven in 10 statistic.

This story was originally published August 21, 2016 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Law to stop second violation by law."