TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Department of Law Enforcement completed a three-year project to process over 8,000 sexual assault kits submitted from 2015 through last June by local law enforcement agencies to FDLE labs following a 2016 Sexual Assault Kit Assessment.
In total, 8,023 sexual assault kits were processed, resulting in 1,814 CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) hits. CODIS enables federal, state and local agencies to compare DNA profiles electronically, linking crimes to each other and known offenders.
“Ensuring that law enforcement has the appropriate tools to properly process sexual assault kits in a timely manner is important in helping solve crimes in Florida,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis. “Victims deserve our support, and they should know that under my administration justice will prevail.”
Among the thousands of sexual assault kits were recently processed, several of them were related to local cases. Below is how the local results turned out:
The Santa Rosa Rosa County Sheriff's Office had one sexual assault kit processed, the results of that test matched someone already in the system.
The Santa Rosa Correctional Institute had four sexual assault kits tested, none of which turned up a positive result.
The Milton Police Department had one sexual assault kit processed, which also did not turn up a positive result.
“This is an extraordinary accomplishment and I am grateful to FDLE and all our law enforcement partners who worked diligently to eliminate the backlog of previously untested sexual assault kits,” said Attorney General Ashley Moody. “Not only was the backlog eliminated, procedures were adopted and advances made in an effort to prevent future backlogs.”
Of the DNA hits associated with this evidence, not all of them are actionable. An "actionable hit" is a match to the DNA database that provides new information to the investigation.
Not all local law enforcement agencies submit their evidence to FDLE labs. Some Florida agencies use private labs or have their own lab systems.
Visit www.fdle.state.fl.us/docs/SAKResults.pdf to see the 2016 Sexual Assault Kit Assessment.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: FDLE completes backlog of sex assault kits