Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced that 226 untested sexual assault kits were shipped from the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) to Marshall University Lab to undergo DNA testing.
“One of my highest priorities as attorney general has been to clear the backlog of untested sexual assaults kits in the state of Missouri, and we’re continually making progress toward that goal,” said Schmitt. “Victims have been waiting for far too long to receive justice for the heinous acts committed against them, and my Office is working to honor their courage by ensuring that such a backlog never happens again.”
These 226 kits, in addition to the 300 sexual assault kits that were shipped for testing out of KCPD in August 2022, brings the number of reported, untested sexual assault kits to be tested in the Kansas City Police Department to 491. KCPD’s backlog of reported, untested sexual assault kits is now more than halfway cleared.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office released a SAFE Kit Inventory Report in August, detailing the scope of the Office’s work so far. The report explains that the Office has already tested 3,478 kits, and 82.3% of Missouri law enforcement agencies report no SAFE Kit backlog.
The report also highlights that as a result of eligible DNA results being uploaded into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), there have been 249 CODIS hits from the 2018 SAFE Kit Initiative inventory and there have been 5 CODIS hits from the 2020 SAFE Kit Initiative inventory. There has also been one conviction obtained because of a CODIS hit, and 4 more cases are awaiting trial because of CODIS hits.
The SAFE Kit Initiative, funded by grants administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, was launched by Schmitt in January of 2019 to inventory all untested sexual assault kits in the state’s backlog, create an electronic tracking system, and send those identified kits to a lab for forensic testing and potentially eventual prosecution. Former Judge M. Keithley Williams has led the effort since the inception of the Initiative.
The inventory report, which is updated as of August 15, 2022, can be read here.
Republished courtesy of Missouri AG.