DULUTH — Nearly a decade ago, Duluth police had the largest backlog of untested rape kits across all Minnesota law enforcement agencies.
By 2018, the police department had eliminated its entire backlog, and Monday, the department and Duluth's Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault (PAVSA) announced a new awareness campaign that highlights reforms signed into law by Gov. Tim Walz in 2021. Those reforms aim to further improve law enforcement response to sexual violence cases, officials said.
"We are better equipped than ever to meet the challenges of responding to sexual assault in our community," said Nathaniel Stumme, head of the criminal division of the St. Louis County Attorney's Office.
The 2021 reforms aimed to close longstanding gaps in reporting and prosecuting sexual assault cases. They include the elimination of the statute of limitations for cases that involve minors and ensure all sexual assault kits are sent to the state crime lab for testing or storage within 60 days.
An online kit-tracking system now also allows victims to track their evidence from the hospital to the crime lab, PAVSA Executive Director Sara Niemi said.
"Survivors can have confidence when they step forward that our system has stepped forward to support them," she said.
The backlogged kits, sitting in storage for as long as 25 years, were inventoried in 2015 after the state Legislature ordered a one-time audit of all untested kits held by law enforcement agencies across the state. Departments reported a total of more than 3,400 untested kits; Duluth had the most, with more than 550.
Duluth was unique in Minnesota for the scale of its effort to tackle untested kits and reopen cases. It received more than $2 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance. Now, the police department has two investigators assigned to kit work, along with an employee who collects DNA.
