This is why they should be called survivors, not victims.

A 39-year-old woman was abducted by convicted sex offender and alleged serial killer Anthony Sowell. She was raped repeatedly over two days. Early on the morning of the third day, while Sowell slept, his arm draped over her, she managed to slip out of bed, snatch a picture frame off the wall and smash it over his head. A fight ensued. The woman bit Sowell on the forearm, jabbed him with a piece of glass and ran out the door, into the street.

She didn't stop running until she was far, far away.

But her ordeal, described in a Cleveland Heights police report, didn't end there. Now the cops were going to violate her. Not physically, but mentally.

Cuyahoga County prosecutors announced last week that Cleveland Heights investigators failed to test DNA evidence collected from the woman after the April 2009 kidnapping and attack. That evidence, prosecutors state, matches Sowell's DNA. They intend to call the woman, whose bravery and persistence in seeking justice are hardly the acts of a victim, as a witness in Sowell's trial.

No one would know of the ineptitude and indifference of the Cleveland Heights cops if she hadn't had the courage to come forward again in January and recount her horrific tale to Cleveland police, who alerted prosecutors.

Cleveland Heights Police Chief Jeffrey Robertson so far has not explained how such an egregious oversight occurred.

Such cavalier behavior is unconscionable, and it underscores the urgency for a uniform statewide policy on how rape kits are handled.

Now, procedures vary from department to department. There is no oversight, no accountability. The Cleveland Police Department has spent the last year counting untested rape kits it had collected between 1991 and 2010. That tally is still not complete.

Attorney General Mike DeWine is forming an 11-member Sexual Assault Kit Testing Commission to produce an "Ohio Model Sexual Assault Kit Testing Guide" that will establish a statewide protocol based on best practices.

The commission will hold its first meeting June 14 in Columbus.

The sooner DeWine sets standards for testing and tracking rape kits, the sooner police departments can be held accountable for how they handle sexual assault investigations.

Survivors deserve nothing less.