DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Attorney General Doug Chin talked about the launch of the Hawaii Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) website under Project Malama Kakou on Friday.
Select an option below to continue reading this premium story.
Already a Honolulu Star-Advertiser subscriber? Log in now to continue reading.
After years of inactivity or sluggish pace, it’s good to see a step-up in testing of sexual assault evidence kits. Until recently, thousands of these DNA “rape kits” collected from traumatized survivors across the U.S. sat untested in police departments, often for years. In Hawaii, as in other states, there’s now a push to prioritize testing, maintain a tracking database and resolve more sex-crime cases.
Always, though, the system must keep in mind those who’ve suffered — to keep victims in the loop on their cases, and to minimize retraumatizing. Toward that goal, the state has launched a new website: ag.hawaii.gov/hisaki, which aims to help survivors with case updates as well as support programs, as officials handle hundreds of backlogged kits.
An embattled HART loses more talent
Brennon Morioka is only the latest among the veteran transportation professionals to pass through the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation. This goes for the executive director’s office, still occupied by an interim hire, Krishniah Murthy, as well as the board, with former chairwoman Colleen Hanabusa heading back to Congress and taking then-acting exec Michael Formby with her. Morioka’s new job at Hawaiian Electric Co. promoting electric vehicles has a clear appeal. But it is worrisome that building the city’s rail project, apparently, has none.
