Michigan Attorney Bill Schuette announced this morning that his office has discovered 1,819 untested rape kits across 82 counties.
These kits were found outside of Detroit and Wayne County.
Scheutte says: The counts requested are those of sexual assault victims who were assaulted before October 1, 2014, and were not previously tested for various reasons, which can include that the suspect confessed, pled guilty, or was already incarcerated.
Back in 2009, there was public outrage after more than 11,000 untested rape kits were discovered in an abandoned Detroit police storage facility.
Since then, there have been big efforts to change the way sexual assault cases are handled in the area. Michigan State Police completed testing of the backlogged Detroit kits in September of 2015.
Schuette and the MSP now say they will move forward with the testing of these newly discovered kits and handle the possible future investigations.
"Today, we take another step forward in getting rapists off the streets and ensuring justice for sexual-assault victims. I thank our prosecutors and law-enforcement agencies for working with us to test previously untested sexual assault kits,” said Schuette in a press release. “Experience shows that testing every kit helps law enforcement solve crimes and stop serial rapists.”
From the document below, it appears the Flint Police Department (261) and the Battle Creek Police Department (239) have the highest number of untested kits out of the 82 counties surveyed.
