Results tagged “rapekit”

Thousands of rape kits still remain untested, finds a follow-up to a year-old audit that revealed some 7,500 rape kits sat untested on the shelves of LAPD labs. City Controller Wendy Greuel plans to release the the full findings tomorrow morning. Her office said today that the backlog has been reduced to 65%. However, Greuel says the Department’s record keeping is inconsistent, making it difficult to give entirely accurate numbers. In early October, it was reported that 3,157 kits were left to go with the full backlog completion due in the summer of 2011.

It was about a year ago when the public was outraged over some 7,500 rape kits sitting on the shelves of LAPD criminalist labs untested. Fueled by the anger and a city audit, the LAPD announced they would begin going through all the kits. Today, 3,157 kits are left to go with the full backlog completed in the summer of 2011, according to the LA Times

Following the shocking news, media pressure and community outrage of the 7,000 untested rape-kits sitting on LAPD shelves, the LAPD along with Mayor Villaraigosa and City Attorney hopeful Jack Weiss announced a plan to catch up on the DNA testing of rape-kits. Basically, political will and funding will be directed towards the crime lab.

Although everyone can agree that it's unacceptable to have a backlog of 7,000 rape-kits over at the LAPD, the reality is resources, as in money. Who is to blame? Well, the politicians are at odds over that one, though in the end, there are a lot of factors from councilmembers, past and present, mayors and the LAPD. In the meantime, the Daily News looks into the sometimes long process to analyze just one rape-kit. It's never like a one-hour TV show:

In response to City Controller Laura Chick's report on the LAPD's backlog of 7,000 untested rape-kits--over 200 of which are already past the statute of limitations--Chief William Bratton admitted the issue as a “tremendously important problem," at a press conference yesterday evening. Although Chick calls for fixing the problem in three years like New York City did when it had a backlog of 17,000 kits, Bratton's plan will clear the backup to zero by 2013... that is if the funding comes in, even though the program previously lost a half million dollars in an internal clerical error. Bratton's two prong plan basically grow the number of criminalists and lab techs by over 30 as well as contracting to DNA labs across the country.

Nearly 7,000 rape-kits sit on LAPD freezer shelves awaiting testing with at least 217 of those past the statute of limitations, rendering them useless even if a rapist is identified by the DNA collected. "It is beyond disturbing that the thousands of victims who have undergone the invasive ordeal of these 4-6 hour tests do not even know that their evidence is still untested" wrote City Controller Laura Chick in an audit of the police department's rape-kit testing program. "One of the audit's findings calls out a Penal Code provision that requires the LAPD to make this notification to victims; the LAPD does not do that now." The 25-page report can be read here (.pdf).