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A DNA Backlog
The New York Times
November 10, 2008
In 2004, Congress approved a bipartisan measure aimed at clearing up the shameful nationwide backlog of rape kits, the physical evidence from sexual assaults, awaiting DNA analysis.
The measure was named for Debbie Smith, a Virginia rape victim whose assailant was finally apprehended on the basis of DNA evidence collected during the invasive exam she consented to following the attack — after her rape kit sat untested for six years.
Sadly, despite tens of millions of dollar in federal grants, a significant backlog remains. When the new House and Senate take office in January, lawmakers need to address this ongoing insult to women and the intolerable loss for effective law enforcement.
The problem is particularly egregious in California. An audit issued last month by the Los Angeles city comptroller said at least 7,000 rape kits remain untouched by the police department’s crime lab. That includes open cases and solved cases awaiting analysis and entry of the DNA profiles into state and national databases, a critical step for identifying any other crimes committed by the assailant, and preventing future attacks. More than 200 rape kits had been sitting so long, the audit found, that the 10-year statute of limitations for bringing prosecutions had expired.
The causes of this disaster include a lack of resolve, trained personnel and accountability.
Under Bill Bratton, the former New York City police chief who is now police chief in Los Angeles, the number of untested rape kits has grown by around 700 each year while some federal money available to pay for testing has gone unclaimed.
California is not alone. West Virginia’s State Police reported that its DNA case backlog grew to 697 cases by the end of 2007, from 560 cases six months earlier, despite receiving about $230,000 in federal money. The Miami-Dade Police Department failed to spend any of the $200,000 it requested in 2007 to cut its DNA backlog, whose size was not reported to the federal government.
Between 2005 and 2007, half the states receiving grants did not spend all the money. States that did were not required to specify what portion was used to process rape kits, compared with other DNA testing, for which grant money can be spent under the law.
Sarah Tofte, a researcher who has studied the issue for Human Rights Watch, says the chief failure here is “to treat rape as seriously as other violent crimes.”
Congress can help fulfill the law’s promise by tweaking the Debbie Smith law, say by requiring states to use at least 30 percent of their grant money to test backlogged rape kits and lifting restrictions on paying private labs for DNA testing. Senator Patrick Leahy, the Judiciary Committee chairman, has expressed concern about the backlog. We urge him to hold hearings and build momentum for needed revisions to the law.
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