National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI)

SAKI provides funding to support multidisciplinary community response teams to inventory, track, and expeditiously test previously unsubmitted SAKs (as defined below); collect and test lawfully owed DNA from offenders/arrestees; produce necessary protocols and policies to improve collaboration among laboratories, police, prosecutors, and victim service providers; provide resources to address the sexual assault investigations and prosecutions that result from evidence and CODIS hits produced by tested SAKs; optimize victim notification protocols and services as well as address the lack of criminal justice resources for other violent crime cold cases.

With this solicitation, BJA seeks to support the Department’s priorities of reducing violent crime and supporting law enforcement officers and prosecutors by:

1. Providing jurisdictions (including rural and tribal) with resources to address sexual assault kits (SAKs) in their custody that have not been submitted to a forensic laboratory for testing by Combined DNA Index System (CODIS)-eligible DNA methodologies.
2. Improving investigations and prosecutions in connection with evidence and cases resulting from the SAK testing process as well as other violent crime cold cases.
3. Providing sites with resources to collect DNA samples from qualifying individuals who should have a sample in CODIS (based on the type and time of the offense in relation to applicable state law) but from whom a sample has never been collected or submitted to a laboratory for testing.

Funding Categories:

1. Purpose Area 1: Comprehensive Approach to Sexual Assault Kits.
2. Purpose Area 2: SAKI for Small Agencies (including rural and tribal agencies).
3. Purpose Area 3: Expansion of DNA Databases to Assist with Sexual Assault Investigations and Prosecutions: Collection of Lawfully Owed DNA from Convicted Offenders and Arrestee DNA Collections. 
4. Purpose Area 4: Investigation and Prosecution of Cold Case Sexual Assaults.
5. Purpose Area 5: Developing and Implementing a Sustainability Plan.
6. Purpose Area 6: National Cold Case Initiative.

BJA will prioritize applications for Purpose Areas 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 for funding over Purpose Area 6. Once funding decisions for those purpose areas are complete, remaining funding will be distributed to the highest scoring peer-reviewed applications for Purpose Area 6, as appropriate.

For additional details on each Purpose Area, see https://bja.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh186/files/media/document/O-BJA-2023-171565.pdf#page=13.

• Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Eligibility Criteria" for clarification)

Estimated Total Program Funding: