SPRINGFIELD, Mo – A sweeping review has found that close to 90% of Missouri rape kits have never been tested.
Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced Wednesday only 830 of about 7,000 total kits were previously tested, 6,157 of those kits were untested.
According to Schmitt’s office, of the untested kits, 4,438 were reported, meaning they had a police report to go along with them, and 1,719 were unreported, without an accompanying police report.
Here in Greene County, there were just over 300 kits Schmitt inventoried.
- Untested Reported Kits: 282
- Untested Unreported Kits: 26
- Previously Tested Kits: 4
Those numbers are from Schmitt’s report. The highest number of untested reported kits came from the Springfield Police Department, which had 231 of the 282 untested reported kits. The second highest was from the Greene County Sheriff’s Office with 29.
To see the numbers for other counties in our area, click here.
“Earlier this year we announced our Safe Kits initiative, a serious undertaking to clear out the backlog of untested sexual assault kits in the state of Missouri. The work that Judge Williams and the team have undertaken has been exhaustive, thorough and provides an accurate view of all of the untested sexual assault kits in the state of Missouri,” said Attorney General Schmitt.
“It’s important to remember, these kits are not just numbers. They are not footnotes to the reporting of a crime. They represent real human beings, who have suffered, confronted their fears, reported the assault and submitted a kit. A kit that may have been put on a shelf and remained untested. Until now.”
The attorney general’s full report describes the process undertaken to complete an exhaustive, accurate review of the number of untested sexual assault kits in the state of Missouri. To read that full report click here.
Eric Schmitt says the next steps entail creating an electronic tracking system and testing kits.
