RALEIGH, N.C. - On Thursday, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein discussed updates to the state's sexual assault kit tracking system and gave an update on the efforts to get funding to test older kits.
The Attorney General reports as of Monday, new sexual assault kits will be entered into a statewide system, where victims can track the status of their rape kit. The system will mark each evidence kit with a barcode, and it will allow anyone, including law enforcement, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and even the victims themselves - know the real-time testing status of the kit. Older and untested kits will also be marked with barcodes and put in the system.
The State Crime Lab also announced it received a $2 million grant from the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance Sexual Assault Kit Initiative to test a portion of the untested kits currently in the hands of law enforcement offices. That money will also fund new lab positions and training for officers on a victim-centered approach to sexual assault investigations.
As for the rest of those untested kits, Attorney General Stein says it will still come with a high cost - at around $10 million - and could take between three and five years to complete the tests. However, he's confident they can clear up the backlog - with the help of lawmakers' approval of funding.
Back in April, WFMY News 2's Meghann Mollerus reported 15,000 rape kits in North Carolina remained untested, according to the Department of Justice's sexual assault inventory, which was released in February 2018. The inventory shows those 15,000 kits were found on shelves at police departments across the state, either ineligible or awaiting testing by the Raleigh State Crime Lab.
The lab tests around 162 kits every day, and it takes between seven and nine months to fully process them - at a $700 cost, for labor and equipment.
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