KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- When police learn of a sexual assault, the thoroughness of their investigation includes an often overlooked disruption to the life of the victim.
Police sometimes have to take their bed sheets as evidence.
"When we respond out to a sexual assault investigation, we will document the scene and then we will also search and then recover evidence," said KCPD Crime Scene Technician Marisa Smith.
Smith said she wanted to find a way to help those victims deal with one less thing.
"We kind of realized we're often taking people's only sheets and it's just another thing that kind of adds on to that process of being a sexual assault victim," said Smith.
So Smith came up with the idea to create a pantry for bed sheets in July and give them out to victims of sexual assault.
"This is something that we can have an immediate positive impact on our community," said Smith.
The pantry is mostly stocked with donations from her colleagues.
While she's only handed out a few bed sheets so far, she hopes more people will donate sheets in the future.
"I think this is just a small part of what we can do for sexual assault victims," said Smith.
This program is the first in the nation according to Smith.
If you would like to donate, you can bring only new sheets to any of the six patrol division stations.
At this time, they do not want cash.
