FDLE: 11,000 rape kits not tested by law enforcement agencies

FLORIDA — The Florida Department of Law Enforcement revealed Tuesday that almost 11,000 rape kits are sitting untested at law enforcement agencies across the state.

FDLE presented the information to a state criminal justice committee as part of a $300,000 study.

FDLE asked law enforcement agencies in August to report how many rape kits they have not submitted for testing no matter when the kits were collected..

The agency will present findings of the study to lawmakers in January.

FDLE's Assistant Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Pritt addressed the state appropriations subcommittee on criminal and civil justice.

She said the numbers are preliminary, but almost 11,000 rape kits have gone untested. That's on top of 1,500 that were submitted to FDLE labs for testing so far this year.

Pritt said the people who commit sex assaults are not “specialists” and may have also committed burglaries, robberies and other crimes.

“Each sex assault kit represents a person who endured a crime and consented to an extremely intrusive forensic examination,” said Pritt.

State Attorney General Pam Bondi is pushing lawmakers to appropriate hundreds of thousands of dollars to streamline the process and get the kits tested

FDLE's assistant commissioner of public safety said there are a number of reasons the kits have not been submitted, including major back logs, but didn't give further specification.

WFTV