This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A common theme in police dramas — novels, movies and TV — is "the cop who plays by his own set of rules."

It's an approach that's popular with a general audience because it makes for more tension and excitement. It is also a device fiction writers resort to because they don't know what the real rules of police work are and have to make them up as they go along.

That's fine in entertainment. In real police work, it's not acceptable in the least.

Yet, just the other day, members of a Utah state task force created to promote thorough investigations of sexual assaults throughout the state heard from a real, live police officer who said that a cop's gut instinct, not the science of analyzing physical evidence collected from women who report being raped, should be the primary guide in such cases.

Yes, a cop's instincts are important. Experience in police work, as in most fields, matters. And there can be little doubt that, like most professionals, police officers can resent being micromanaged by outsiders who don't really understand their job.

But, still, it was stunning to hear a West Jordan police investigator on Thursday tell the state's Rape Kit Working Group that any rule mandating the testing of every rape kit would be burdensome and costly to police departments. And, she said, it would also be a waste of time and money because the instincts of police officers are fine-tuned enough to filter out the false accusations.

Really?

The conventional wisdom among those who do research in this area is that a tiny fraction of rapes, maybe 13 out of 1,000, are even reported to police, and barely half of those result in a guilty plea or verdict for the perpetrator. Even if those numbers are off, there is little reason for anyone to argue or believe that our society is dealing with a glut of false rape reports.

The routine and rapid testing of all physical evidence associated with reported sexual assaults should be the default procedure of every law-enforcement agency. If that's too expensive for small communities, the state should step in to help.

This is true not only because the victims of sexual assault deserve every reasonable step in the investigation of their cases. It also matters because the proper gathering, testing and sharing of DNA and other identifying data serves both to identify criminals who strike more than once and, often enough to matter, to clear those who may actually have been accused without merit.

It is not micromanaging the police for the people, through their elected representatives, to not only pass laws defining criminal behavior but also to set some minimum standards for how those laws will be enforced.

To tell the women of Utah, and those who love them, that the chances of their claims being believed and fully investigated depend on the whim and mood of whichever officer or deputy happens to be handy is an insult we must not tolerate.

Test the kits. All the kits.