The Arkansas state Crime Laboratory is "chipping away" at a backlog of sexual-assault evidence kits, said Executive Director Kermit B. Channell II.
Because of the backlog, it's been taking about five months to process new kits the lab receives. Channell said he wants to get that down to 45 days.
That's how long it took to process each kit six or seven years ago, when the lab was "hitting on all cylinders," Channell said. He hopes to reach the 45-day goal again within a year.
Channell said there are about 450 kits at the Crime Lab right now, and most of them are either being evaluated or are in the DNA-testing phase.
"Some of those are actually being worked, and reports are coming out but they're in the system as pending," Channell said.
About 290 of the 450 cases have yet to be assigned, he said.
The backlog is better than it was.
In 2015, the Crime Lab got a $97,121 grant from the Manhattan district attorney's office to process kits that had been sitting on shelves in law enforcement offices.
As a result, the Arkansas lab got an additional 1,300 kits in 2015 and 2016, Channell said. Those kits came from Arkansas' 10 largest law enforcement agencies. He said about 800 of the kits came from the Little Rock Police Department.
Channell said it took a couple of years to work through all 1,300 kits.
Sometimes criminal charges aren't pursued in a case, and the associated evidence kits aren't sent to the Crime Lab, Channell said.
The Sexual Assault Kit Backlog Elimination Grant Program provided $38 million to 32 jurisdictions in 20 states. The purpose of those grants was to get law enforcement to send those kits to the Crime Lab to be tested, Channell said. That way, a DNA profile of the suspect could be put into a database.
"It might not help the case they were working on, but it might help connect serial rapists, serial criminals," Channell said.
Out of the 1,300 shelved kits they received, Channell said they got 179 hits in the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, which allows federal, state and local forensic laboratories to exchange and compare DNA profiles electronically.
They also got hits on two known sexual predators who were incarcerated, he said.
"We were able to add additional victims to their crime spree," Channell said.
Channell said the Crime Lab serves law enforcement agencies across the state, and it normally receives an average of about 60 kits each month. If a predator is still at large or a trial is coming up, the kits can be put on a fast track so prosecutors can get them back without waiting for five months.
Channell said he lost six DNA analysts around 2015, which exacerbated the testing backlog. He currently has 13 DNA analysts, but three of them are in training, which takes about a year.
Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley said the Crime Lab needs more funding.
"Crime labs had difficulties since time immemorial," he said. "I've been here since 1991, so I've got a pretty good history. ... They have a hard time keeping quality personnel in all their sections because they're not competitive salary-wise. There's a lot of crime and lot of demand put on their resources by people like me.
"I wish the Crime Lab had more or better funding so they wouldn't have the retention problem they have with all their personnel. With this climate, I get that everybody wants to save money, but there's a human cost ... especially when it comes to these rape kits. Until we make a commitment as a state to fund the Crime Lab, we're going to have to keep dealing with it like we have been and hope the wheels don't come off."
Channell said his DNA analysts got raises in 2017, taking the starting salary from about $37,000 a year to about $45,000 a year.
"It makes us more attractive," he said. "We're more competitive with our neighboring states."
Matthew Durrett, the Washington County prosecuting attorney, said the situation is similar for drug cases.
"Due to the number of samples at the Crime Lab, it's taking these cases longer and longer to get through the system," he said. "So, we are seeing more and more cases get backed up in our office."
Jegley said the delays are re-victimizing the victims of sexual assault.
"The old cliche that justice delayed is justice denied is very true in my opinion, particularly with victims of sexual assault," Jegley said.
State Desk on 02/17/2019