PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Oregon police have shipped nearly 2,800 sexual assault kits to a private lab in Salt Lake City, Utah, where they’ll be tested for DNA thanks in part to grants from a district attorney’s office in New York.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office last year awarded $38 million toward the testing of rape kits nationwide. The money, from settlements with international banks that violated U.S. sanctions, is expected to help test more than 57,000 kits across the country, easing a major backlog.
KATU-TV reports (https://goo.gl/gERny6 ) that Portland police and the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office each received $2 million. On Friday, police sent untested kits from Multnomah, Marion and Lane counties to Utah. More shipments are expected.
Brenda Tracy, a rape survivor who has become an advocate for getting old kits tested so that evidence can be matched to perpetrators, says it’s an injustice that the kits have sat untested for so long. But she’s excited it’s being done now.
___
Information from: KATU-TV, https://www.katu.com/
Please read our comment policy before commenting.