2014 FOIA Request
FOIA Documents
Jurisdiction Type
City
Response
Untested Kits Discovered
Unknown
Why did we send the FOIA?
In 2014, the Joyful Heart Foundation launched The Accountability Project to uncover the extent of the backlog across the country. In 2015, Joyful Heart and our pro bono attorneys sent public records requests to twenty-six of the country’s most populous cities for which we did not have any or had very little information about their untested rape kits.
What did we discover?
As of November 2014, Camden indicated that “no records exist” regarding the number of rape kits collected or stored by the police. As such, we were unable to ascertain the number and testing status of rape kits in the custody of the Camden Police Department.
More Accountability Targets in New Jersey
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.