New law calls on Minnesota cops to account for untested rape kits

Law enforcement agencies across the state are getting ready to report exactly how many untested sexual assault kits they have sitting on their shelves — and explain why they remain in evidence.

A new law that takes effect Saturday requires all police agencies, sheriff's offices and forensic labs to report the information to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Hospitals gather sexual assault kits to capture physical evidence to preserve anything that may prove an assault occurred. Until now, however, police weren't required to report their numbers and there is no clear inventory.

In Minneapolis, the police department has appointed an officer to count the number of untested rape kits. A spokesperson could not immediately say whether the count's been completed.

"When we try to reach out and say, 'Just tell us how many kits you have,' if there is a little bit of resistance to this, that leaves me concerned," said state Rep. Dan Schoen, DFL-Cottage Grove, who sponsored the legislation. "There shouldn't be resistance to answering the question, 'Are you helping victims like you're supposed to?'"

Schoen said local agencies never have to worry about paying to test rape kits because they can simply send them to the BCA. The agency processes kits to identify potentially vital DNA that may link assaults to suspects. The costs are assessed to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

But some police agencies may have legitimate reasons for the backlog. In some cases, the victims get the exam but don't consent to DNA processing. Sometimes the cases lack evidence that proves rape, as opposed to consensual sex, took place. In other cases, the suspects were already charged or convicted without the evidence contained in the kits, which remain at police departments.

In Duluth, 565 kits have been sitting untested since 1995, according to department officials.

"In years past unless it was an open investigation, they didn't want us sending our kits down [to the BCA for testing] just for the sake of sending them down," Duluth Deputy Police Chief Ann Clancey said.

That practice changed this year. The Duluth Police Department sends all incoming kits as soon as it receives them from hospitals regardless of their status. To slowly get rid of the backlog, the agency has been sending old kits, 10 at a time, to the BCA.

"Eventually we won't have any, other than our anonymous ones where we don't have consent to send them," Clancey said.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Washington County Attorney Pete Orput have previously said they don't have any untested rape kits in their counties.

"If people want to say that we don't have a problem in Minnesota, we just said prove it," Schoen said.

The Anoka County Sheriff's Office holds kits for all law enforcement agencies in the county. There are currently 495 untested sexual assault kits dating back to 1985, Anoka County Sheriff's Office spokesman Paul Sommer said.

"The reasons these kits were not tested vary," he added. "The majority being the fact that the identity of the alleged rapist was known and the fact that sex occurred wasn't in question, consent was the only issue."

Laura Taken-Holtze, external relations manager for the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said she hopes the legislation will not only add up an inventory of all untested rape kits in the state, but come up with a plan to get rid of the backlog and strengthen victim advocacy.

In some parts of the state, she said victims often have a hard time finding access to sexual assault kits. Not all hospitals have the capacity or expertise to do exams, Taken-Holtze said.

"What this legislation will do is assess, first of all, whether or not we have a problem [with untested kits] in Minnesota," Taken-Holtze said. "And second of all, hopefully it will then spark a broader conversation about making sure that victims have access to rape kit and have access to sexual assaults forensic exams."

Editor's note (Aug. 11, 2015): This version of the story clarifies Ramsey County Attorney John Choi's statement on untested rape kits. He was speaking directly about Ramsey County and the city of St. Paul, not the entire state.