Rape Kits Languish on Evidence Shelves

Across the country, police departments have stacks and stacks of DNA swabs provided by rape victims in the hope of identifying their attacker — commonly known as rape kits — sitting on shelves, untested by any labs.  In 2009, revelations in Cleveland and in Detroit showed how bad the situation had become. After whistleblowers highlighted the issue in the early 2000’s, many states and the federal government began pressuring, and in some cases paying for, testing of backlogged rape kits.  Even so, the FBI now estimates that there are some 200,000 untested kits sitting in evidence lockers across the country. Journalist Barbara Bradley Hagerty, recently wrote an in-depth article in the Atlantic about the rape kit backlog.  She joined the Monday 8 O’Clock Buzz on July 29, 2019.