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The City of Boston Police Department (BPD) was awarded $2.5 million in FY2021 to improve Boston's capacity to respond to violent crime, most specifically sexual assault. BPD intends to utilize the funding to expand resources for investigating and prosecuting cases that result from sexual assault kit evidence. The City of Boston will develop a multidisciplinary working group that includes BPD, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, and local sexual assault nurse examiners. The multidisciplinary working group will review, inventory, and follow up on the investigations of up to 100 unsolved sexual assault cases; additionally, the working group will contract with an evaluation consultant and external crime laboratory. The working group will also be developing an evaluation and sustainability plan to implement ongoing improvements and sustainability for sexual assault response reform.
For more information on the specific SAKI award for this site, see the table below.
| Year | Amount | Purpose Area |
|---|---|---|
| FY2021 | $2,500,000 | Comprehensive Approach to Unsubmitted Sexual Assault Kits |
Specialized Boston police sex assault unit marks first conviction
— Karen Anderson & Kevin Rothstein, WCVB 5, Feb 14, 2024
"A specialized Boston police unit investigating sexual assaults has reached a milestone: its first conviction.
William Mancortes pled guilty in Suffolk Superior Court last December and was sentenced to 10-12 years in prison for raping two women who thought he was an Uber driver."
Boston serial rape suspect faces new charges of rape and assault
— NBC News, Jun 28, 2023
"The New Jersey lawyer accused of a series of sexual assaults in Boston more than a decade ago was indicted Tuesday on new charges of rape and assault, authorities said.
Matthew Nilo, 35, was indicted on seven additional counts — of rape, aggravated rape, assault with intent to rape and indecent assault and battery — related to a series of attacks that authorities say occurred from January 2007 to July 2008, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office said in a news release."
Boston serial rape suspect faces new charges of rape and assault
— NBC News, Jun 28, 2023
"The New Jersey lawyer accused of a series of sexual assaults in Boston more than a decade ago was indicted Tuesday on new charges of rape and assault, authorities said.
Matthew Nilo, 35, was indicted on seven additional counts — of rape, aggravated rape, assault with intent to rape and indecent assault and battery — related to a series of attacks that authorities say occurred from January 2007 to July 2008, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office said in a news release."
New Jersey lawyer charged for series of Boston rapes in 2007 and 2008
— ABC News, Jun 7, 2023
Melo is the sixth subject arrested by Boston Police since they created a new initiative to solve cold rape cases last year. WCBB investigative reporter Karen Anderson has been covering the slew of arrests since 2022 after the city received a $2.5 million federal grant to send a thousand rape kits for enhanced testing. They're going through every single case and making sure that it is all given the same respect and attention that it deserves. That grant money is part of a wider push nationwide by the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative which has awarded more than $320 million to state and local jurisdictions and has resolved thousands of cases of sexual assault and homicides since 2015
Dorchester man arrested in connection with 2014 rape, Boston police say
— WCVB 5, Mar 1, 2023
"Boston police announced Wednesday that 30-year-old Ali Tariq Abdallah-Muhammad, of Dorchester, was arrested at about 5 p.m. Tuesday on an outstanding warrant of one count of rape stemming from a 2014 sexual assault.
Police confirmed that the investigation that led to Abdallah-Muhammad's arrest was initiated through the department's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative."
BPD Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Program Assists in Arrest of Demetrius Wilson
— bpdnews.com, Jan 10, 2023
"At about 6:00 PM on Monday, January 9, 2023, officers from Area A-1 arrested Demetrius Wilson, 57, of Boston, pursuant to three outstanding warrants. The warrants were issued out of the Suffolk Superior Court for two counts of Rape, one count of Assault and Battery, and one count of Intimidation of a Witness. The second warrant was issued out of Dorchester District Court for two counts of Rape. The third warrant was issued from Middlesex Superior Court for one count of Unarmed Robbery, one count of Assault and Battery, and one count of Assault and Battery on a +60/ Disabled person.
A Sexual Assault investigation led to the utilization of a Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit (SAECK) which assisted detectives in identifying the suspect in connection to these separate incidents and could result in further charges as detectives continue their investigations."
Former Boston Uber driver charged in cold-case sex assault investigation
— Boston.com, Sep 24, 2022
A former Boston Uber driver and Hyde Park resident was arrested Friday on multiple charges of sexual assault. The Boston Police Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Program assisted in Mancortes’ arrest, investigators said. Police said the findings of the kit could result in further charges as detectives continue their investigations.
BPD charges alleged serial rapist thanks to rape kit initiative
— Boston.com, Sep 13, 2022
"Boston police arrested an alleged serial rapist Monday using evidence collected through the department’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative program.
“The opportunities presented by this SAK Initiative will give us the tools that we need to support victims of sexual assault in more comprehensive and trauma informed ways,” Lt. Richard Driscoll, commander of the Sexual Assault Unit, said in a statement about the program earlier this year. “We so appreciate the opportunity that the Bureau of Justice Assistance has given us.”
Boston police launch new initiative to solve cold case rapes
— WCVB5, Jul 23, 2022
"But police are taking another look at 1,000 kits where no DNA was detected, using a $2.5 million federal grant to submit the kits to an outside lab for advanced DNA testing. The new technology uses what's called Y screening, used to detect male DNA.
"That's what's really exciting about this grant," said Kevin Kosiorek, director of the department's crime lab. "The federal government wants us to test everything. They're not satisfied unless it gets re-screened using Y screening."
Sexual assault kit initiative leads to arrest of Boston rape suspect
— WHDH TV 7 NEWS, May 13, 2022
"A Roslindale man was arraigned Friday after being linked through DNA evidence to an alleged incident of rape and is set to be arraigned for another on Monday, District Attorney Kevin Hayden said.
Irving Pierre, 40, of Roslindale was arraigned in the West Roxbury Division of Boston Municipal court in connection with a 2013 rape of a then-16-year-old."
The Boston Police Department Announces the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative During Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
— bpdnews.com/, Apr 27, 2022
The National Sexual Assault Violence Resource Center (NSARC) has declared April Sexual Assault Awareness Month #SAAM. The Mission of NSARC is to raise awareness about sexual violence around the world, and to educate communities on how to prevent it. For the Boston Police Department (BPD), we honor this call to action by focusing on the launch of a 2.5 million-dollar, 3-year grant, that was awarded to the BPD in December of 2021, titled the FY 2021 Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI).
Funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative aims to create a coordinated community response that ensures just resolution to sexual assault cases. Through this program, funding is provided to support multidisciplinary community response teams engaged in the comprehensive reform of jurisdictions approaches to sexual assault cases resulting from evidence found in previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits.
