Pennsylvania's backlog of 3,000 untested rape kits now under 100, auditor general says

Four years after the state Auditor General’s Office found that more than 3,000 untested rape kits were sitting idly in police departments across Pennsylvania, that number has dropped to fewer than 100, the office announced Tuesday.

“While important progress is being made, I’m concerned that nearly 100 victims of sexual assault are still waiting for their evidence kits to even be sent to a lab,” Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said.

The total number of backlogged kits — a rape kit for which a victim has consented to be tested but has been waiting a year or more — is down to 94, DePasquale said.

That’s a 97% decrease and the lowest the backlog has been.

That’s still, he said, far too many.

“I’m still concerned there are still close to 100 rape victims waiting for their kit to be sent to a lab,” he said in a virtual press conference. He noted that the number will likely never be zero, as a victim has to consent for a rape kit to be tested.

In Allegheny County, there were four backlogged kits as of Dec. 31, according to the auditor’s report: two in McKeesport and one each in Homestead and West Mifflin. In Westmoreland County, there were two backlogged kits with Rostraver police.

DePasquale also called for legislators to establish a comprehensive tracking system that would allow a victim to see where their rape kit is in the process, such as at the hospital, at a police department or at a crime lab.

“Testing rape kits is merely the first step,” he said.

He pointed to Idaho, where the state police have developed such a tracking system that they offer for free.

“We believe that would be a permanent dent in this situation,” he said.

DePasquale’s 2016 report alleged poor communication between the state Health Department and the state’s nearly 1,100 local law enforcement agencies. The report noted a 2015 law that requires departments and labs to notify the Health Department of its untested and backlogged kits.

Some of the untested rape kits dated to the 1990s.

In 2016, 499 law enforcement agencies self-reported their numbers, DePasquale said. In 2019, about 1,060 self-reported.

State law also mandates that once consent for testing is received, law enforcement has to submit a rape kit to a forensic lab within 15 days.

DePasquale urged police departments across the state to make sure they’re complying with that law.