2014/06/21

Salt Lake Tribune Jun 18 2014: Utah to hire private labs to analyze stockpiled rape kits

Crime » Evidence, which the state lab wasn’t able to process, may help solve hundreds of sexual assaults.

For years, Utah law enforcement agencies have faced roadblocks to processing hundreds, if not thousands, of backlogged rape kits — the state crime lab was underfunded and understaffed.

Now lawmakers have come up with a stopgap solution: $750,000 for private laboratories to analyze rape kits.

The Utah Department of Public Safety, which oversees the state lab, soon will issue a "request for proposal" (RFP) seeking private firms capable of the work. A contract should be issued before year’s end, said lab Director Jay Henry.

Advocates argue rape kits — containing potential evidence in sex assaults — that sit unanalyzed in police storage are a travesty that denies justice to victims.

Rough estimates peg the number of unprocessed kits at 1,000 to 2,000 statewide. The Salt Lake City Police Department has 788.

After reported sex assault, evidence is collected from the victim by specially trained nurses and locked in a rape kit, also known as a "Code R" kit. Among other things, the evidence could contain DNA.

The backlog caught public attention in Salt Lake City earlier this year, when the City Council asked Police Chief Chris Burbank why his department had shelved or destroyed 79 percent of its rape kits between 2003 and 2011. more