AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Austin officials gave the green light for three DNA testing contracts they said should help clear a backlog of unprocessed rape kits.
The City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved contracts worth a total of $305,000, the Austin American-Statesman reported. The move is the latest effort to address untested evidence after the Austin Police Department was forced to shut down its own DNA processing lab in 2016.
“The sexual assault kit backlog has cast a shadow on Austin and has been a weight on the shoulders of many survivors for years,” Councilwoman Alison Alter said. “I’m heartened to see a light at the end of the tunnel in what has been a very painful chapter for many women in our community.”
The Police Department said last year that all the evidence had been processed. But 1,300 rape kits are still waiting for a second round of processing and analysis.
“Our sexual assault backlog was only cleared through the first level of analysis and still needed to go through the technical review and (Combined DNA Index System) upload before we could say the backlog was truly cleared,” Alter explained.
The department suspended operations at its DNA lab after the Texas Forensic Science Commission raised concerns about a lack of supervision and evidence mishandling. Even before the lab closed, some sexual assault survivors had seen their cases on hold for months or years while awaiting testing.
The new contracts are with Forensic Science Solutions, Marshall University Research, and Riley, Welch and LaPorte & Associates Forensic Laboratories.
The number of rape kits reviewed monthly is expected to increase from 30 to 300, according to a staff memo. At the rate cases have been reviewed, it would have taken until 2023 to get through them. Instead, it should take just a few months, Alter said.
Testing results can be entered into a national database that can be accessed by law enforcement around the U.S. City leaders expect testing to wrap up in the fall.
___
Information from: Austin American-Statesman, http://www.statesman.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.