Illinois’ Crime Lab Has Long Backlog Of Rape Kits. What’s The Hold Up?

rape kit
Forensic analyst India Henry removes a pair of underwear from an evidence bag for testing in a sexual assault case in the biology lab at the Houston Forensic Science Center in Houston. Pat Sullivan / AP
rape kit
Forensic analyst India Henry removes a pair of underwear from an evidence bag for testing in a sexual assault case in the biology lab at the Houston Forensic Science Center in Houston. Pat Sullivan / AP

Illinois’ Crime Lab Has Long Backlog Of Rape Kits. What’s The Hold Up?

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The state crime lab has a backlog of hundreds of rape kits.

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez says it takes about a year to get rape-kit test results from the state crime lab. A couple of states are much faster.

Alvarez spoke at a National Rape-Kit Testing Forum yesterday, along with other law-enforcement officials and advocates. 

Julie Renfroe, a forensics supervisor for the California Department of Justice, said her state has sped things up by creating better processes. 

California now sets itself a deadline of about one month. Arlene Hall, who runs the Illinois state crime lab, said her lab would start a project to improve workflow in the coming year.