Ky. audit explains rape-kit backlog problem

While Kentucky can now put a number to how many sexual assault kits remain untested across the state — 3,090 — it also has a better idea of how the thousands of kits went untested for years, even decades.

The Louisville Metro Police Department claims 1,320 untested kits, according to Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts Adam Edelen’s study, released Monday.

There are 1,859 untested kits at 87 police departments and sheriffs’ offices in Kentucky, while 1,231 untested kits already submitted to the Kentucky State Police Forensic Laboratory for DNA testing.

Edelen called for untested kits to be submitted to the state lab, and moving forward, all kits be sent to the lab within 10 days of entering police possession. He also called for $3 million-$5 million from the General Assembly to be allocated to the state lab next year, with $2 million in following years for recurring costs.

Sexual assault kits — more commonly known as rape kits — contain biological evidence collected from a victim following the report of a sexual assault.

If submitted for lab testing, the kits could yield DNA evidence that, when entered into an FBI-maintained database of DNA profiles, could generate a hit that helps connect suspects to current or past crimes.

But the successful testing of kits is sometimes thwarted at many steps of the process, Edelen said, from initial collection at a hospital to the evidence rooms of law enforcement agencies to the long wait for testing at the state lab.

"The public outrage from thousands of unprocessed rape kits knows no demographic, no region and no political party," said Auditor Adam Edelen in the report. "The commitment to reforming and rebuilding this system, for demonstrating that victims matter, should be just as consistent."

The audit paints a picture of an understaffed, underfunded state lab that in recent years has been bombarded with requests for forensic examinations as DNA technology improves. And despite the realization that the lab needed more resources, auditors’ review of financial records and interviews suggest KSP did not place “sufficient priority” on the issue.

“Clearly what we have is a crisis of resources,” Edelen said.

Director of the KSP lab, Laura Sudkamp, said while she agrees the lab could use statehouse funding, KSP leadership has been aware of backlog issues and supportive of the lab.

“We’ve been trying to gather these kits since 2012, and with the auditor’s help, we’ve been able to get a good handle on who has these kits,” Sudkamp said. “Yes, we do need extra funding to be more efficient, but I don’t think we’re quite as bad as what the report makes us out to be.”

She said the lab has sought and received grant funding for technology upgrades and has doubled the number of DNA analyst positions from 10 to 20 since 2007.

At the same time, policies guiding the handling of sexual assault kit evidence and investigations are nonexistent at the majority of law-enforcement agencies across the state. And when they do exist, they often were informal and unwritten.

Police training on the topic is uneven, the study found, leading to uneven investigations that can turn off victims from the process. A lack of sexual assault nurse examiners, specially trained to perform sexual assault examinations, also has contributed to the problem.

The study also pointed to miscommunication between the state lab and law enforcement also limited kit submission. State lab policy asked law-enforcement agencies only to submit evidence in cases that could be prosecuted, as it was already swamped with requests.

Some law-enforcement officials who spoke with auditors said it was their impression they needed to triage their requests and in doing so it was helping out the lab, according to the report.

Sudkamp acknowledged “we weren’t always clear” on that policy, but added it has proactively sought out untested sexual assault kits since 2012, encouraging law enforcement to submit kits except in cases where victims have recanted without coercion.

Sudkamp said the $1.9 million grant it recently received from the Manhattan district attorney’s office will completely cover the testing of all 3,090 kits by an out-of-state lab.

A day of training is planned for October regarding evidence collection and submission, Sudkamp said, meant to get law enforcement and the lab on the same page on a variety of evidence types.

She called on law enforcement agencies across the state to submit their kits, even if victims do not want to move forward with criminal investigation of the case.

“If that DNA were to solve another case where the victim does want to move forward, that’s a big deal.”

Rape survivor Michelle Kuiper of Louisville, who was assaulted in 1994, attended Monday's news conference in Frankfort. Her rapist was identified in 2011 through a DNA match, and since then, she has spoken publicly about the significance of testing sexual assault kits.

“Victims of these horrible crimes try to go on with their everyday lives. They try to survive not only that crime but survive their life," Kuiper said. "So for them to know that these kits are going to be tested when they probably thought they were tested all long, it really is going to matter."

The auditor's study began in the spring, after legislation unanimously passed in the General Assembly that mandated the auditor conduct a count.

The report, noting Kentucky is not alone in its backlog, cited a recent USA Today investigation that found at least 70,000 untested kits exist at more than 1,000 law enforcement agencies nationally.

Key findings:

•Lengthy rape kit testing times at Kentucky State Police’s forensic lab — there’s a current eight-month average turnaround period — are largely due to limited resources, state budget cuts, and recruitment and retention issues.

•KSP failed to create a strategic plan to handle the increased volume of forensic evidence submission, helping create its backlog.

•Mixed messages from the KSP lab on triaging of evidence submissions contributed to decreased rape kit submissions.

•59 percent of law enforcement agencies submit all sexual assault kits they receive for testing.

•Most common reasons given by agencies that do not automatically submit all kits were that the victim said the crime didn’t occur, the victim didn’t file a complaint or the prosecutor said it wasn’t necessary.

•57 percent of agencies said they didn’t submit kits in cases in which a victim declines to file a complaint.

•There are not enough sexual assault nurse examiners in Kentucky, who are specifically trained to treat victims and perform a sexual assault examination.

•56 percent of law enforcement agencies said they don’t have policies and procedures regarding submission of sexual assault evidence kits to KSP, 32 percent have informal policies, and 12 percent have written policies.

Recommendations:

•Law enforcement agencies should submit all old kits that were part of a criminal investigation to the KSP lab by Jan. 1, 2016. Moving forward, the General Assembly should pass a law to require the submission of kits for testing within 10 days of coming into police possession.

•KSP should centralize and maintain data on reported rapes, submitted and tested kits as well as sexual assault charges, prosecutions and convictions.

•The General Assembly should dedicate $3 million to $5 million next year to the KSP lab, with $2 million yearly to cover recurring costs

•The KSP lab should place more emphasis on improved performance and place a budgetary focus on greater lab efficiency.

•KSP should commission an efficiency study to help streamline and optimize the lab’s work and identify waste.

•All law enforcement agencies should have a specific policy for handling and investigating sexual assaults “with a victim-centered, evidence-based approach.”

•A team of law enforcement, prosecutors, sexual assault nurse examiners, forensic lab employees and victim advocates should study the feasibility of a statewide bar code tracking system for rape kits.