which Snyder attributes to a desire to maintain low crime rates on the part of law enforcement agencies, whom, according to the Washington Paper tend to be unsympathetic to alleged rape victims. Detective Vincent Spriggs, of D.C. Metro P.D.'s Sexual Assault Unit, cites instances of false or unconvincing rape accusations, and requests for rape kits by women who wish to have pregnancy tests or the morning-after pill administered, as an obstacle to more open use of the kits. In 2008, Howard University canceled the SANE program, after which it reopened under the supervision of the mayor's office. Depictions in media The problem of rape kit backlogs was employed as a significant plot point in "Behave", the September 29, 2010 episode of the television crime drama, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which depicts the operations of a police sex crimes unit. In the episode, detectives investigate the case of a woman, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, who has been raped multiple times by the same man over the course of fifteen years. Their investigation leads them to discover that the perpetrator has raped women all over the United States. The detectives attempt to contact the Special Victims Units in other cities, only to discover that most of them have never tested the majority of their collected rape kits. The episode was based on the real-life story of advocate and survivor Helena Lazaro. See also Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) DNA database Forensic identification Post-assault treatment of sexual assault victims Rape in the United States Sexual assault Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act References Rape Forensic equipment