MERIDIAN, Idaho — The Idaho State Police expects to complete DNA testing of backlogged rape kits from across the state sometime next year, the agency announced Thursday.
The Idaho Press reports the announcement comes alongside the American Society of Crime Lab Directors’ release of a national survey showing the number of sexual assault kits across the country that still need testing in a laboratory.
Over the last three years, following an Idaho Press investigation, the Idaho Legislature passed a series of bills mandating the testing and tracking of sexual assault kits, which are a collection of evidence gathered after a sexual assault.
Idaho in 2017 became the first state in the country to implement a statewide system tracking sexual assault kits, the Idaho Press previously reported.
A sexual assault kit includes evidence such as clothing, personal items and swabs from a victim’s body in hopes of collecting DNA evidence that could lead to an arrest.
TESTING
Idaho’s first legislation regarding rape kit testing passed in 2016, requiring law enforcement agencies to track the number of sexual assault evidence kits collected and report the number of untested kits.
During the 2019 legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill requiring all sexual assault kits be tested, except in rare cases.
The Idaho State Police worked with police departments across the state to identify 996 previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits that needed testing. These kits were submitted to state police by November 2018, according to Thursday’s release. ISP Forensic Services committed to testing 375 of the kits and collaborated with the FBI for testing the remaining 621 kits. In April, the FBI announced completion of testing on those kits.
By July of this year, ISP Forensic Services had screened all kits for the presence of biological material, according to the release. The agency has completed testing on 174 kits. Officials expect testing will be done next year on the remaining kits, despite hopes testing would be completed by the end of this year.
The agency’s lab technicians, however, are still receiving new submissions even as they are working through the backlogged kits.
“This has created a submission increase of over 100% to the DNA lab,” according to the release. “The current turnaround time for sexual assault kits at the (Idaho State Police Forensic Services) lab … is 108 days.”
The agency “hopes to have all DNA analysis under a 30-day turnaround time by the end of December 2020,” the release reads. “Essential to this plan is the recruitment and retention of senior DNA examiners and hiring and training of new examiners.”
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