Los Angeles Takes Back Promise to Address Rape Kit Backlogs

Two months ago, I told you about the country's shocking number of untested rape kits -- collections of any physical evidence an attacker may have left behind, including vaginal swabs, urine samples, blood tests, and fingernail scrapings. In Los Angeles County alone, a September 2008 audit revealed nearly 7,000 untested rape kits, 200 of which had been there over 10 years, thus putting the cases beyond the statue of limitations. The County promised swift action in response.

Last Friday, however, city leaders announced that the 26 new crime lab positions it promised last May as a way to address this countywide crisis would not be created after all. This despite the fact that police insist these positions are necessary, not only to get rid of the backlog they currently have, but also to timely process new tests as they come in.

To be fair, since the initial audit, Los Angeles County has made some progress in eliminating some of the backlog by outsourcing the DNA testing to independent labs. However, this is more of a band-aid than a cure, since federal law mandates that all evidence processed in private labs be reviewed by public labs before they can be entered into the DNA database. On average, results sit around for 72 days before being reviewed. That creates a secondary backlog, a kind of rape test purgatory where they are neither included in the backlog nor in the database.

Yes, times are tough and money is tight everywhere. But to submit sexual assault victims to invasive, often traumatizing tests and then to ignore them is unacceptable. Consider this: In April 2008, the LAPD caught a man they'd been after since the 1970s. The man, a registered sex offender, was suspected of serial rape and murder yet hadn't been called in for a routine DNA sample until the fall of 2007 because of the backlog of cases. Further, the rape kits of two of his alleged victims were collected more than thirty years ago, but not processed until five or seven years before the suspect was arrested. Think of all of the violent offenders that we could get off the streets by simply processing the evidence we already have.

There is something you can do to help: The Justice for Survivors of Sexual Assault Act -- which would provide the federal funding, incentives, and training needed to address this shocking backlog -- currently sits in committee in Congress. Of course, Los Angeles can't wait for help from Congress before it takes action of its own, but obtaining this funding would a big help across the country. Tell your Representative that you demand that they throw their support behind this critical piece of legislation.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Costlow