Rep. Helfrich: “Unacceptable” delays in testing rape kits.

REPUBLICANS CONDEMN ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ DELAYS IN TESTING RAPEKITS
BY Oregon House Republican Caucus,

SALEM, Ore. – In response to stunning reports that Oregon’s backlog of untested rape kits has returned after reports never made it to the legislature because of “bureaucratic breakdowns,” House Republican Leader Jeff Helfrich (R-Hood River) and Representative Tracy Cramer (R-Gervais) issued the following statements:

“As a mom of a young daughter, waiting roughly eight months for these kits to be tested makes me sick just thinking about it,” said Rep. Cramer. “Every untested kit represents a survivor whose voice has been silenced and whose trauma has been compounded by systemic inaction. As sexual violence is on the rise, we can’t afford these kinds of failures. This is too important not to prioritize.”

“The number of kits waiting for testing is shocking by itself, but the fact that turnaround times are over eight months is completely unacceptable,” said Leader Helfrich. “In 2018 I was a sponsor of HB 4049 which mandated tracking so we never ran into this again, so I don’t want to hear about ‘bureaucratic breakdowns’. This is a complete failure of Democrat leadership, which over the past few months has been plagued with transparency issues and cover-ups. We must solve this immediately so the victims can get the justice they so rightfully deserve.”

Oregon State Police are required to issue regular reports to the legislature on how many kits are awaiting testing. This mandate stemmed from the 2018 legislature’s HB 4049 in response to a large backlog in 2016 that was finally cleared in 2019. However, the reports that would have indicated the problem were never delivered.