Explanation
BACKGROUND: The Columbus Division of Police was awarded funding through the FY24 Sexual Assault Kit Funding Grant Program (SAK) through The State of Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services (OCJS). The City must be a subgrantee to the State of Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services to participate in this program according to the federal grant guidelines. Therefore, the Mayor is required to sign a subgrantee award to accept this grant on behalf of the City. This federally supported program seeks to reimburse state and/or local law enforcement to conduct investigations on sexual assault kit testing and related expenses. The Columbus Division of Police currently has 502 sexual assault kits awaiting transfer for laboratory analysis. This grant funding will allow the Columbus Division of Police to collaborate with The Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) that will allow 175 kits to be transferred to BCI for analysis, reporting and entry into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).
The official city program contact authorized to act in connection with this $350,000.00 grant is Sergeant Kyle Fishburn. The grant award start date is May 5, 2025 and ends December 31, 2025.
In order to achieve project deliverables, we request legislative approval to:
1) Enter into a $350,000.00 contract with The Attorney General’s BCI to transfer and process 175 backlogged sexual assault kits for analysis. These specific laboratory services are only available through the Laboratory Division of The Attorney General’s BCI.
Emergency Designation: Emergency legislation is necessary to meet the State of Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services processing deadline and to allow the financial transactions to be posted to the City’s accounting system as soon as possible for the grant award, as the grant start date was May 5, 2025.
FISCAL IMPACT: This ordinance authorizes an acceptance of the $350,000.00 grant award and the appropriation of those funds ...
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