Cleveland Police Failed to Send Recent Rape Kits for Testing (Cleveland.com)
February 14, 2018
This article was originally published by Cleveland.com at www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/02/cleveland_police_failed_to_send_ hundreds_of_recent_rape_kits_for_testing_in_violation_of_state_law.html
“CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cleveland police failed over three years to send hundreds of rape kits collected from sexual assault victims to a lab for testing, in violation of state law.
“An Ohio law that took effect in 2015 requires rape kits to be sent to a lab within 30 days.
“The department discovered in 2017 that a detective responsible for transporting the evidence to the county-run crime lab had not been submitting all of the kits in a timely manner, creating what the department referred to in emails as a ‘backlog.’
“Cleveland Rape Crisis Center President & CEO Sondra Miller said she’s ‘disheartened’ that the department didn’t follow established protocols to send every sexual assault evidence kit to a crime lab for testing.
“‘Behind each and every kit there is a human being who was harmed in an immeasurable way,’ she said. ‘People deserve better.'”
