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SALT LAKE CITY — Hundreds of once-backlogged rape kits collected by the Salt Lake City Police Department all have been submitted to the Utah State Crime Lab, the agency reported this week.
In all, 768 backlogged rape kits that accumulated over 10 years have been submitted, Salt Lake Police Chief Mike Brown told the Salt Lake City Council at a work session Tuesday. Brown also said all 179 kits collected by his department in 2015 were submitted to the crime lab for processing.
A report submitted to the City Council in 2014 indicated most rape kits collected by Salt Lake police from 2004 to 2013 had not been submitted. The council established new policies regarding rape kits that year, including allocating money to hire a forensic scientist to expedite submissions, council spokesman Dan Weist said.
Police were also instructed to update the council on rape kit processing each year during city budget considerations, Weist said.
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Utah working through backlog of untested rape kits
Utah authorities are working their way through a backlog of untested rape kits, one year after police began submitting the evidence to crime labs amid public scrutiny.“The chief told us there has been a comprehensive turnaround in their process, a complete 180 in the last year,” City Council Chairman James Rogers said in a statement. “We are pleased Salt Lake is helping lead the way in making a priority of improving the way the cases are handled in Utah.”
Just 22.8 percent of rape kits collected by police statewide between 2010 and 2013 were submitted to the state crime lab within a year of being collected, according to a study released in April by BYU professor Julie Valentine.
