STATEHOUSE (Dec. 1, 2017) — State Sen. Michael Crider (R-Greenfield) today announced the Indiana State Police (ISP) released its findings regarding the number of untested sexual assault kits in Indiana.
During the 2017 legislative session, Crider authored Senate Resolution 55, which urged the ISP to conduct an audit of all untested sexual assault examination kits in Indiana and report the findings and recommendations to the Legislative Council.
The audit found 5,396 kits in the custody of law enforcement. Of these:
• 416 were attributed to non-reporting or “Jane Doe” kits, which law enforcement cannot test without the permission of the victim;
• 1,669 were identified as no-crime or false-report kits, which are held in the event a false reporting case needs to be made or until the statute of limitations expires; and
• 751 were attributed to adjudicated cases, which are held in case of appeal or expiration of a statute of limitations on a related non-charged crime.
With those kits removed from the total, ISP found a “net” of 2,560 untested kits for which the reason the kit remains untested is not immediately clear.
“We needed to know the scope of the problem before we could start trying to find solutions to the issue of untested sexual assault examination kits,” Crider said. “I am tremendously grateful to local law enforcement and county prosecutors for their participation in the State Police’s audit. The fact that all 92 counties in Indiana participated sends a clear message that our communities across the state are serious about sorting through these untested kits. Now that we know how many untested kits are out there, our local law enforcement can begin to take a look at each case and determine the proper path forward.”
Crider added that he will be offering a bill in the 2018 session that will address the issues that contributed to the current backlog of untested kits in order to ensure each sexual assault examination kit that ought to be tested has a path that results in a closed case.
To view the full report, click here.
