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<a href="mailto:loganb@awcnet.org">Logan Bahr</a>, <a href="mailto:shannonm@awcnet.org">Shannon McClelland</a> | Oct 19, 2018
A Washington Attorney General’s Office (AGO) survey of law enforcement agencies found that more than 6,400 sexual assault kits have not yet been submitted to a crime lab for testing.
A Washington Attorney General’s Office (AGO) survey of law enforcement agencies found that more than 6,400 sexual assault kits have not yet been submitted to a crime lab for testing. The inventory is part of the AGO’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative project. In October 2017, the AGO won a grant for $3 million from the U.S. Department of Justice to assist law enforcement with testing and investigating untested sexual assault kits. Attorney General Ferguson plans to dedicate $1.5 million to pay for the testing of kits – the maximum allowable under the grant.
All kits were originally collected and booked into evidence by local enforcement, but were not submitted to a crime lab for a DNA analysis. They remain in evidence storage facilities around the state. This is one of the two types of sexual assault kit backlogs in Washington and across the country.
The second type of backlog occurs in crime lab facilities, and consists of kits that have been submitted, but have not yet been tested. In 2015, led by Rep. Tina Orwall (D-Burien), the Legislature gave funds to the state’s Crime Lab to reduce the testing backlog.
According to the Washington State Patrol, more than 3,300 backlogged kits have been submitted to the Crime Lab using this legislative funding. Of those kits, about 1,700 have been tested and about 1,100 are currently in the testing process. These totals do not include the 6,460 unsubmitted kits the AGO inventoried that are held by local law enforcement.
Once the kits are tested, local law enforcement can use DNA to reopen cold cases. The AGO will offer investigative assistance to local law enforcement agencies. Testing these kits will identify serial rapists, link cases across the country, provide critical links that could solve homicide cases, and provide answers to victims and their families.
In January 2019, the AGO will conduct a two-day sexual assault investigations workshop for professionals working in the field of sexual assault response, including law enforcement, prosecutors, advocates, and sexual assault nurse examiners.
More information on the ongoing project is available on the Attorney General's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative webpage.