State Senate Wants Count Of Untested Rape Kits Statewide
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Law enforcement agencies across Minnesota could soon be required to provide a tally of their untested rape kits, a move advocates and legislators say would help determine whether more action is needed to tackle potential backlogs.
State senators unanimously passed a bill Tuesday to require law enforcement agencies to count any kits sitting on their shelves. The kits, collected as hospitals after victims report an assault, contain DNA and other evidence that can be used to identify suspects.
"We have to get this right. This is the first step," bill author Sen. Vicki Jensen, DFL-Owatonna, said on the Senate floor. "We need to find out what is the scope of our problem in Minnesota."
Cities such as Houston and Detroit have faced huge backlogs of untested kits, some of which languished for decades. Congress recently approved more than $40 million in federal spending to test an estimated 400,000 kits nationwide.
But Rep. Dan Schoen, who's pushing the bill in the state House, said he expects Minnesota's number of untested kits to be relatively low.
"I think in Minnesota that we're going to find that we're in really good shape," the St. Paul Park Democrat said. "But we need to know. We don't have an answer from every agency in Minnesota all at once. And that's what we're going to do."
Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension tests many of the rape kits gathered across the state. It processed evidence related to 875 sexual assault cases last year, a spokeswoman said, most of which included a rape kit. Testing the evidence takes an average of 38 days.
The bill would require law enforcement agencies to report why any kits haven't been tested. Some may simply remain because assault victims haven't asked police to proceed with the case.
But because the state covers the cost of testing a kit, "there's really just no excuse" for authorities not to do so if a victim wants to, Schoen said.
"If a kit is just sitting there and a victim wants it tested ... and it's not, then that can be very upsetting," said Caroline Palmer, law and policy manager for the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault. "If the system's not responsive, they're going to lose faith."
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