Process all HPD rape kits

There is little to be gained when the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) has 1,500 untested rape kits, dating back more than a decade, stored in a refrigerated facility. And while it might be an expensive task to test each and every kit, having a broader DNA database locally and federally could produce leads in cold cases — and possibly identify serial rapists.

Legislation now under consideration would require local law-enforcement agencies to submit all kits, which include forensic evidence from sexual assault victims, to a lab within 10 days and complete testing within six months. Data gathered from those tests would be uploaded to the state DNA database and the FBI Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

The proposal deserves serious consideration given that other states have mandated testing all kits — Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Texas and Washington State are among them. Nationwide, it’s estimated that hundreds of thousands of kits remain untested.

Research, however, shows that clearing backlogs and leaving no kit untested produce results.

In Detroit, for instance, of 1,595 kits that were tested in a National Institute for Justice (NIJ)-sponsored research project in 2011, 28 percent of the kits revealed the DNA identification of the perpetrator.

In a 2011-2012 NIJ project with the New Orleans Police Department, after testing 1,008 kits — 830 older and 178 accumulated during that year — 40 sex crime cases were closed. That represents, to some degree, closure for 40 victims.

Locally, HPD said it supports the intent of bills that would mandate testing of all rape kits, but the measure would be more palatable if it came with provisions to fund the increased workload.

HPD Forensic Laboratory Director Wayne Kimoto said eight additional laboratory analysts would be required to handle the extra work, and that it would cost $2.3 mil-lion to outsource the entire backlog of rape kits for testing, then $800,000 a year thereafter to keep up with about 150 kits that HPD gets annually.

While funding is a concern, Sen. Laura Thielen, who introduced the measure, pointed out that HPD has not applied for millions in federal money under the Violence Against Women Act that could be used to test rape kits. HPD must aggressively pursue those federal dollars to chip away at its 1,500 kits in storage, and lawmakers also should be ready to supplement those funds.

However, it’s difficult to take any of HPD’s numbers seriously following Kimoto’s feeble testimony Wednesday. When asked for the total number of HPD’s untested kits, Kimoto told lawmakers that the lab would need to hire one to two fulltime staffers just to go through inventory to determine that figure — and it would take a year to do it. Yet the department contradicted him later that same day, by producing the figure lawmakers were seeking: 1,500 untested kits.

Kimoto displayed a stunning lack both of facts and of respect for the legislative process, since lawmakers must make informed decisions based on accurate testimony from public officials.

HPD said that in addition to the 1,500, it has a backlog of 15 current sexual assault kits in need of testing. The department said only about 15 to 20 percent of HPD’s kits end up being tested, usually at the request of a prosecutor or a detective. The remaining kits are not tested for various reasons: when the perpetrator is already known, when the suspect admits to having sex with the victim or when an alleged victim withdraws the complaint.

But the kits, which can take hours to collect from victims’ bodies, can yield DNA evidence that helps bolster prosecutions, identify serial rapists and in some cases exonerate the wrongfully accused.

Mandating the testing of all sexual assault kits might well come with a hefty price. But far outweighing those costs are the benefits of bringing closure to victims in some cases, and building a DNA database that could help solve future attacks.