CBS News
In response to a CBS News investigation that found 20,000 untested kits nationwide, the San Antonio Police Department made a major announcement: it will now test all rape kits in stranger cases and will also go back and test all untested stranger rape kits in storage.
“We don’t want to let any case where someone is sexually assaulted fall through the cracks,” said San Antonio Police Chief William McManus.
San Antonio is the seventh largest city in the United States. Chief McManus said that the DNA profiles obtained from untested rape kits will be entered into the national FBI DNA database.
In early fall, the San Antonio Police Department told CBS News it had 11,522 rape kits in storage, and that 5,191 of those kits had never been tested. The department also told CBS News it takes about 15 to 20 days for a rape kit to be tested, at a cost of $40 to the department. The department said the Attorney General reimburses the police department for $275 of the total $315 it costs to test each kit.
Chief McManus told reporters yesterday the majority of untested kits are from acquaintance rapes where identity of the suspect is not in question. More…