New York City

In 1999, New York City had a backlog of nearly 17,000 untested rape kits. All of those untested kits were sent to private labs for testing, and the backlog was cleared by 2003. Ending the backlog cost approximately $12 million and resulted in more than 2,000 matches in the national DNA database and 200 arrests. The city adopted a policy of testing every rape kit booked into evidence.

In 2017, New York State enacted a law requiring all law enforcement agencies to count and report the number of untested kits in inventory. In April 2017, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) stated that it had 42,578 kits in custody dating back to 1980. NYPD is currently identifying the testing status of these kits and will submit any untested kits for testing.

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance awarded the NYPD $2,075,142 to identify kits that have not been submitted for testing, inventory and track evidence, and improve evidence practices going forward.