Idaho lab makes progress on untested rape kits, still struggles with turnaround
After three years of efforts to reform sexual assault kit tracking and testing in the state, Idaho State Police are able to report that in 2019, all previously untested rape kits had been submitted to the lab, and it continues to work on the DNA analysis for those kits.
Idaho State Police Forensic Services published its 2019 sexual assault kit tracking report this week for submission to the Idaho Legislature. The report showed significant progress in addressing backlogged kits since the first piece of legislation on rape kit reform passed in 2016.
The kit refers to the forensic exam a sexual assault victim undergoes after being assaulted. The exam includes swabbing and combing the victim’s body for DNA, as well as photographing injuries, and can sometimes take hours to complete. The exam is performed, in part, to try to collect DNA that a suspect left behind, which could lead to identifying or exonerating a suspect.
Director of Forensic Services Matthew Gamette is the first to acknowledge that although there has been progress made, there’s still work to be done. Only initial screening has been done on some of the previously untested kits.
“We have screened through all of the previously untested kits, meaning we know there’s DNA there,” Gamette said.
But DNA analysis, which would put together a profile of a potential suspect, has not been completed on all of the old kits.
Prior to 2016, the state of Idaho had no regulations mandating that law enforcement agencies have a tracking system for rape kits, and there were no mandates that a victim’s kit be submitted to a lab for testing.
Now, all kits are tracked and all of them must be tested, with only rare exceptions.
In 2019, it took law enforcement an average of 37 days to submit a kit to the lab. The state lab received 612 DNA cases in 2019, up from 359 in 2018. That includes DNA from rape kits, but also from homicides and other crime scenes.
In 2019, 454 kits were collected from victims in Idaho and 350 of them were submitted to the lab for testing. In the same year, 479 kits were completed by the lab, meaning at least 129 of the kits tested were older kits.
Gamette said his lab has only three DNA analysts and the number of requests coming in has increased their workload. In 2020, he hopes to bring down the turnaround time, which on average is 89 days, Gamette said.
But, “the average turnaround times do not reflect the reality of the situation,” he said. He stressed that if there is an urgent case, something where there’s an imminent public safety concern, kits can be prioritized and taken up first. Not every kit in the lab will stay there for 89 days.
At the end of 2019, 339 kits had been in the laboratory longer than 90 days, and the oldest sexual assault kit had been in the lab 712 days, according to the report.
Gamette said he is working on hiring to fill one vacancy and is training some new employees. Once that’s done, his goal is to have the kits screened in less than 30 days, and then the DNA analysis done in less than 30 days.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s budget did not request an additional scientist for the lab, and the Idaho State Police Forensic Services’ budget request has not yet gone before the Legislature. ISP’s budget requests will be public in February.
When a DNA sample is collected through the rape kit, analysts can cross-reference it with a suspect’s DNA to see whether it matches. Or, if a suspect is not known by the victim, the DNA sample could be put in a system called CODIS, to see whether it matches any previously convicted felons or samples collected at other crime scenes.
CODIS, or the Combined DNA Index System, is a national database of DNA samples that law enforcement across the country share in an effort to identify suspects who left DNA at a crime scene.
In 2019, the number of offender profiles in CODIS increased to 55,373 people, with 4,353 of those entered last year.
According to ISP, the lab’s DNA casework section had 34 hits to Idaho offenders and 16 hits to offenders in the National DNA Index System, commonly called NDIS. Those hits were in 10 states.
Since Idaho created its rape kit tracking system, the state has shared its software with multiple other states and cities, helping them find a way to efficiently track the kits through the testing process. It’s beneficial to both victims and law enforcement, authorities say.
Gamette explained that Idaho will give public entities the tracking software for free, as long as the service is free for public use.
“We have no interest in competing with commercial companies” that may design similar systems, he said.
In 2020, the Idaho Sexual Assault Kit Initiative working group will continue to work with law enforcement about using DNA and to get training for nurses who perform the rape kit exams. Gamette said they’ll also offer training for police about the neurobiology of trauma when working with victims.
The first legislation on sexual assault kit reform came after a 2015 news report at the Idaho Press drew attention to the number of untested kits that Idaho law enforcement was not submitting for testing, and the lack of regulation around tracking the kits.
This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 1:33 PM.
