New York

In 2025, New York legislators enacted S3004D, Capital Projects Budget, reappropriating the unused amount of $5,979,000 from the 2021-2024 budget for services and expenses related to a storage facility for sexual offense evidence collection kits. S3000D Operations Budget allocated $2,545,000 for the services and expenses related to the storage of rape kits.

In 2025, New York legislators introduced A1970 / S5225, which would mandate hospital participation in the statewide tracking system, allowing all agencies who handle rape kits to update the status of a kit. The bill also establishes kit handling timelines: hospitals would have 48 hours to notify law enforcement agencies who then have to pick up kits within 3 days of notification. Read our letter of support.

According to New York’s Sexual Offense Evidence Kit Inventory Report, law enforcement agencies received 3,137 kits and submitted 3,284 kits for testing in 2024. The number of kits remaining in their custody at the end of each quarter varied: 35 in Q1, 14 in Q2, 17 in Q3, and 25 in Q4. 91% of agencies reported their inventories.

Labs completed testing on 2,883 kits. Of these, 1,082 kits were completed in the quarter they were received, while 1,801 were processed from previous or later quarters. Additionally, 429 kits were not assigned to an analyst in the quarter they were received. The report does not reflect a count of all the untested kits in the state. The true extent of the rape kit backlog in New York remains unknown.

In 2024, New York legislators passed A8804, Capital Projects Budget, reappropriating the unused amount of $2,868,000 from the 2021-2023 budget for services and expenses related to a storage facility for sexual offense evidence collection kits. A8800 Operations Budget allocated $2,545,00 for the services and expenses related to the storage of rape kits.

According to New York’s Sexual Offense Evidence Kit Inventory Report, law enforcement agencies received 3,028 kits and submitted 3,282 kits for testing in 2023. The number of kits remaining in their custody at the end of each quarter varied: 11 in Q1, 30 in Q2, 44 in Q3, and 13 in Q4. Only 88% of agencies reported their inventories.

Labs completed testing on 3,124 kits. Of these, 1,024 kits were completed in the quarter they were received, while 2,100 were processed from previous or later quarters. Additionally, 755 kits were not assigned to an analyst in the quarter they were received. The report does not reflect a count of all the untested kits in the state. The true extent of the rape kit backlog in New York remains unknown.

A3004 Capital Projects Budget allocated an additional $1,500,000 for services and expenses related to a storage facility for sexual offense evidence collection kits. A3000 State Operations Budget allocated an additional $2,530,000 for the storage of sexual offense evidence collection kits.

In March 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed A976 into law, a bill that requires a tracking system with an anonymous victim portal to be established by 1/1/25. The tracking system will only track kits in the custody of law enforcement agencies and forensic labs, leaving out a key player in the rape kit handling process —the hospitals.

According to New York’s Sexual Offense Evidence Kit Inventory Report, law enforcement agencies received 2,898 kits and submitted 3,111 kits for testing in 2022. The number of kits remaining in their custody at the end of each quarter varied: 50 in Q1, 52 in Q2, 44 in Q3, and 34 in Q4. Only 86% of agencies reported their inventories.

Labs completed testing on 3,414 kits. Of these, 1,041 kits were completed in the quarter they were received, while 2,373 were processed from previous or later quarters. Additionally, 369 kits were not assigned to an analyst in the quarter they were received. The report does not reflect a count of all the untested kits in the state. The true extent of the rape kit backlog in New York remains unknown.

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance awarded the New York City Police Department (NYPD) $1.5 million to complete a census of offenders, collect DNA samples, and process DNA samples in the NYPD laboratory.

A3004 Capital Projects Budget allocated $4,300,000 for sexual offense evidence collection kits storage facility in the 2021-23 budget. A9000E State Operations Budget allocated $2,530,000 for services and expenses related to the storage of sexual offense evidence collection kits.

In December 2022, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed S7867 into law, a bill that requires a tracking system with an anonymous victim portal to be established by 1/1/24. The tracking system will track both kits in the custody of law enforcement agencies.

Joyful Heart discovered through the 2019 rape kit inventory report that some law enforcement agencies were failing to report their untested kits to the Department of Criminal Justice as required by the statewide inventory law. New York law (SB980) clearly states that each police agency in the state shall report, on a quarterly basis, the number of all the rape kits it has received, the number of kits it submitted to a forensic laboratory for processing, the number of kits in its custody or control that have not been processed for testing, and the length of time between receipt of any rape kit and its submission to the forensic laboratory.

The state’s 2018 enacted budget expanded evidence retention of unreported rape kits to 20 years, as well as mandating survivor notification in advance of planned kit destruction.

S2003D allocated $500,000 for sexual assault kit testing for the 2017-2018 budget.

In 2018, New York legislators enacted A8401C, which directed the Department of Health to publish a Sexual Assault Victim Bill of Rights. This bill of rights was to include the right to: consult with a local rape crisis counselor; be offered contact information for law enforcement; be informed, upon request, of the date when and location at which a kit was analyzed; be informed whether there was a DNA match in the national database; and be notified at least 90 days prior to the expiration of the 20-year storage period.

In the 2016-2017 budget, the state allocated $500,000 for rape kit testing.

In April 2017, DCJS released an update to the audit report, identifying 1,981 untested kits statewide, with 78% of agencies reporting.

In 1999, New York City had at least 17,000 untested rape kits, all of which were tested by 2003. In April 2017, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) stated that it had 42,578 kits in custody, dating back to 1980. NYPD said they were identifying the testing status of these kits and would submit any untested kits for testing.

In March 2017, DCJS released a preliminary audit report, finding at least 1,622 untested kits statewide. Fewer than half of all law enforcement agencies in New York responded to the audit request, so the total number of untested kits in the state remained unknown.

In January 2017, the Buffalo Police Department indicated that it “cannot provide an inventory” in response to our request.

In 2017, New York enacted SB980, requiring all law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies to regularly count the number of untested kits in their possession and report the information to the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS).

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance awarded the New York City Police Department (NYPD) $2,075,142 to identify kits that had not been submitted for testing, inventory and track evidence, and improve evidence practices going forward. In the same year, the U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Justice awarded the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) $483,666 to fund an evidence management system for the rape kits collected in correctional facilities.

We also learned that the Rochester Police Department (RPD) had submitted 89% of all rape kits received between 2005 and 2015 to the lab for testing. As of October 2016, RPD reported 153 untested kits, which were to be incrementally submitted to a federal lab for testing.

Through our efforts, we learned that the Albany Police Department (APD) submitted 90% of all kits received by the department to the lab for testing between 2007 and 2015. As of January 2016, the APD reported 28 untested kits in storage.

In 2016, New York legislators passed A10760, which stated that starting 90 days after enactment, law enforcement agencies must submit all newly collected kits to a lab within 10 days of collection, and the lab must analyze these kits within 90 days of receipt. Within 13 months of enactment, law enforcement agencies were to submit all previously unsubmitted kits to the lab for testing. The lab was to analyze these kits within 120 days of receipt, and return their findings to the agencies within 90 days of analysis. Additionally, A10760 mandated that beginning one year after enactment, law enforcement agencies must report quarterly to the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) regarding the number of rape kits they collect, the number they submit for processing, the number they do not submit for processing, and the length of time between kit collection and submission for processing.

In 2015, The Accountability Project issued open records requests to bring the number of untested kits in Albany, Buffalo, and Rochester to light.