NAMPA, Idaho (AP) - About 90 sexual assault evidence kits will be sent to an FBI lab for testing, the Nampa Police Department in southwest Idaho says.
Nampa Police Capt. Brad Daniels tells the Idaho Press-Tribune (https://bit.ly/1S5YrIG) in a story on Wednesday that the department will send 30 kits at a time to the lab in Virginia.
The newspaper through a public records request reported last year that the department had 105 sexual assault evidence kits it never sent for the testing that could link DNA evidence to suspects.
Daniels said not all the kits are being sent for testing because police determined no crime had been committed or because the possible victim requested the kit not be tested.
An investigation by the newspaper that looked at 22 law enforcement agencies found that the Nampa Police Department had the lowest rate of submitting rape kits for testing. Rates varied, with the police in Meridian submitting about 80 percent of collected rape kits while police in Pocatello submitted about 26 percent.
The Idaho Legislature this year approved legislation mandating law enforcement track the number of collected rape kits and the number that go untested. The law would also require a county prosecutor to approve a decision not to send a rape kit for testing. The bill has been sent to Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter to be signed into law.
In anticipation of the legislation becoming law, the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday released a statement saying that it had created a tracking system for sexual assault kits.
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Information from: Idaho Press-Tribune, https://www.idahopress.com
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