The University of Toledo’s Scott Park campus will host the local Take Back The Night march, an annual international protest aimed at ending sexual violence. On the evening of Saturday April 26, mothers, sisters and friends—some of whom are survivors of violence—will participate in Toledo’s 20th annual Take Back the Night.
“It’s really about women being able to go into the streets unafraid and not needing to hide,” said Lauren Merrell, a UT student and one of the main organizers for this year’s Take Back the Night.
A sexual assault survivor herself, Merrell says the event, for survivors, is about healing.
It’s scary for me to say that I am this empowered woman and that I am an advocate for sexual assault survivors, but that it still happened to me,” said Merrell. “But I still feel like that’s something that survivors need to hear— too often, survivors blame themselves.”
Lagging behind
This year’s theme is A Call to Action, in which sponsoring organizations will inspire Toledoans to remain involved in the community after the event. But the work to be done in Toledo includes more than just volunteering and collecting signatures.
Currently, the Toledo Police Department has 900 unprocessed rape kits held in the department’s property room. Some are decades old, each a testament to personal stories of suffering and painful memories that have been shelved awaiting justice.
The Toledo Police, teaming up with the Ohio Attorney General’s office, is working to get “hits” for their Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database. Attorney General Mike Dewine welcomes all Ohio cities to hand over any of their unprocessed rape kits, especially the older cases. Once a hit is received, the potential suspect information is returned to the submitting local law enforcement agency to determine if the new evidence could further their investigation. The average testing cost per rape kit is $435.
The Toledo Police Department sends approximately five rape kits per week to the attorney general’s office. Thus far, Toledo, one of 125 participating agencies statewide, has sent 597 rape kits.
Evidentiary issues
According to Sergeant Joe Heffernan, Toledo Police public information officer, there are many reasons why the rape kits were not processed before, citing low level of victim involvement, incomplete suspect information and limited technology available years ago.
“The technology is different now, that’s the big thing,” said Sergeant Heffernan. “Now we can do DNA test sampling quicker and with a lot better results than we could back in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s.”
Cases lacking additional evidence and without the cooperation of the alleged victim move slowly in the crime solving process. Reasons for lack of cooperation vary, including victims’ fear for their safety, as well as any time gap that occurred from the time of the alleged attack to when the victim came forward. In Merrell’s case, she did not complete a rape kit or report the assault to the police because she foresaw a claimed lack of evidence, which made her feel that going through the process would not be worth the emotional and physical stress.
Take Back the Night Toledo, will begin with a Resource Fair at 6pm, followed by a Community Rally and then the Women’s March. Artistic displays of remembrance and healing from organizations like The Clothesline Project, The Bandana Project and the Silent Witness Project will be open to the public before the events begin.
Event starts at 7pm Saturday, April 26. toledotakebackthenight.org
