One year after revealing the existence of thousands of unprocessed sexual assault exam kits, most law enforcement agencies in Minnesota are deciding not to test them.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) reported late last year that there were 3,482 untested rape kits in police storage around the state. Since then, only about 70 of the old evidence kits have been submitted to crime labs for DNA analysis.
Several agencies told the Star Tribune that they reviewed their stored kits and didn't see a problem. At least two police agencies — St. Cloud with 306 old sex assault kits and Rochester with 145 — decided not to test any of them.
"Each of those cases, nothing fell through the cracks," said Capt. John Sherwin of the Rochester Police Department.
The Legislature mandated the inventory last year, the first tally of its kind in Minnesota, but the law did not require kits to be tested.
Minnesota's measured approach contrasts sharply with states such as Ohio, whose attorney general pushed to ship all old rape kits for DNA analysis several years ago. More than 500 defendants have been indicted as a result.
It's possible more evidence kits remain in hospitals and clinics around Minnesota, since last year's inventory only covered law enforcement.
About one-third of Minnesota's untested kits, or 1,056 kits, came from victims who didn't want to report the assault or pursue a case, according to the BCA inventory, and so those kits wouldn't be tested. But law enforcement gave other reasons for declining to test, such as that a case was unfounded, or prosecutors rejected it because the suspect said the sex was consensual and there wasn't enough evidence to prove otherwise.