Advocates laud Ramsey County sex assault initiative

Women of color are victimized by sexual assault far out of proportion to their share of the population. Ramsey County is looking for a way to provide more effective resources that will encourage victims in those communities to report their attacks.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said he will direct $40,000 over the next two years for what the county is calling culturally responsive and trauma-informed training for law enforcement.

The boost comes after years of studying what parties involved agree was a less-than-ideal system when it came to how the county responds to such crimes. The county in 2016 commissioned a two-year review of sexual assault cases in Ramsey County, which led to a public report in April 2018 and a countywide implementation plan in 2019.

“What we’re doing now enhances what we planned in 2019,” said Choi. “We wanted to be specific about some things that we really wanted to focus on. We’re going to continue intensive training for law enforcement and prosecutors.”

The goals of the Ramsey County Sexual Assault Response Collaboration include:

• Providing and supporting culturally responsive and trauma-informed training to better serve victims/survivors of all backgrounds.
• Investing in retention of designated investigators trained in sexual assault investigations.
• Involving an advocate early and consistently throughout the investigation process.
• Supporting additional resources for community advocates to help law enforcement.

 The move was applauded by advocacy groups for sexual assault victims. Evon M. Spangler, founder and board chair of St. Paul-based Domestic Abuse Legal Advocacy Center, said it was commendable that “Ramsey County is focusing on sexual assault survivors through a trauma-informed lens.”

“Believing survivors is the first step,” said Spangler. “Every single person that a survivor meets in reporting or deciding whether or not to report the sexual assault should understand trauma, have cultural humility and be nonjudgmental.”

Ashley Taylor-Gougé, interim executive director of the Minneapolis-based Sexual Violence Center, agreed that the focus on culturally responsive and trauma-informed training is an especially critical part of the Ramsey County initiative.

“Far too often, survivors from marginalized communities are met with disbelief, bias or barriers when seeking support,” she said. “Addressing those disparities head-on is a necessary and long overdue step.”

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office will also continue paying for a forensic scientist at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for quicker processing time for DNA results in sexual assault and firearms cases. That funding will also be in place for another two years at $110,000 per year.

The renewed initiatives were sparked in part by research from the nonprofit Minnesota Justice Research Center. That group released a report in August 2024, “I Want to Be Heard,” that presented experiences of BIPOC sexual assault survivors in Ramsey County.

“They recommended that we have more community advocates in place to help law enforcement,” said Choi. “We’re also doubling or retention efforts. We don’t want to train investigators and then watch them leave.”

A way around that, he said, is having a greater advocacy presence during the initial part of a sexual assault investigation — ideally, right after the initial response.

“We want the advocate to be there for the victim at the start of the investigation,” Choi said.

Kenosha Taylor, interim executive director of the St. Paul-based Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MNCASA), applauded what she called Choi’s bold action in effectuating the ongoing initiative.

“He exemplifies the kind of leadership that is essential to transformational change,” said Taylor. “True systems change requires courage, humility, and sustained effort. Ramsey County is demonstrating what that looks like in practice. We are proud to stand with [them] in this work.”

The county has already made progress in charging rates in criminal sexual assault cases — from 39% to 68% — thanks in part to improved and expedited forensic exams for suspects and the presence of specialized prosecutors for such cases.

“We had a dropout rate that was not good enough,” said Choi. “We had a lot of victims who came forward, but didn’t want to continue after that, partly due to slowdowns in investigation times.”

At the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, sexual examination kits are being tested in 90 days or less, in accordance with a goal set by the state Legislature as part of an increase in funding for the BCA crime lab. The Legislature also enacted a tracking system of sexual assault kits in Minnesota, which can provide information to survivors.

“We often heard from our victim/survivors that one of the most difficult things to do is to go home and wait and to not have answers and not understand the process that is happening,” said BCA Superintendent Drew Evans during a press conference to announce the renewed initiative. “It’s important to be able to get those answers quickly.”

The funding for the renewed initiative comes from the county’s civil asset forfeiture account.

Taylor-Gougé added that her organization was glad to see retention efforts focused on investigators specifically trained in sexual assault cases, as well as the commitment to involve advocates more purposefully.

“Investing in community-based advocacy is vital,” she said. “Advocates often serve as the bridge between survivors and the systems they interact with, which helps (center on) the survivor’s voice and autonomy.”