2015 FOIA Request
FOIA Documents
Jurisdiction Type
City
Response
Untested Kits Discovered
1691
Why did we send the FOIA?
In 2015, Joyful Heart issued public records requests to 22 medium sized jurisdictions for which we did not have any or had very little information about their untested rape kits.
What did we discover?
In September 2016, the Northern Light reported that the Anchorage Police Department (APD) had 1,691 untested kits in storage. Through our correspondence with APD, we confirmed that number, and discovered that these untested kits date as far back as 1993.
Why Accountability?
Right now, we do not know the full extent of the national rape kit backlog because few states require law enforcement agencies to count, track, or test rape kits. The Accountability Project aims to bring greater transparency and accountability to rape kit testing practices across the country.