A new state law will mean that the San Francisco Police Department's backlog of untested rape kits will be a thing of the past, but not until SFPD finishes testing the yearslong backlog it currently has, by the end of next year.
The Sexual Assault Victims' DNA Bill of Rights, legislation authored by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, goes into effect in 2016. It mandates all rape kits be tested by an enforceable deadline, according to the San Francisco Examiner.
Labs need to test kits within 120 days or send it along to another lab within a month. A rape kit needs to arrive at a crime lab within 20 days, the newspaper reported.
San Francisco police, who currently have 700 untested rape kits on hand, did not comment to the newspaper.
However, the bill does not come with any funding, leaving it up to police departments or the state Attorney General to make sure there's enough money to test all the rape kits, the newspaper reported.
There were 1,900 untested rape kits in Alameda County in 2012 and another 12,000 untested kits in the possession of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, the newspaper reported.
