Kansas has received a sizable grant from the U.S. Justice Department to investigate sexual assault kits that have never been tested for DNA evidence.
Nearly $80 million in federal grants will be given to 40 law enforcement agencies across the country. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation will receive $2 million of that.
According to KBI, they’ve found over 2,000 untested sexual assault kits, or rape kits, throughout the state. Some of those are due to backlogs at forensic labs, but others were never submitted for forensic analysis in the first place. The grant money will be used to investigate why this happened, finally test these kits and build a better system going forward.
KBI says there are many reasons for a law enforcement agency to not submit a rape kit for forensic analysis, but wouldn’t elaborate.
The KBI is partnering with the Kansas Coalition of Sexual and Domestic Violence and numerous sheriff’s and police departments and district attorneys offices across the state.
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