2014 FOIA Request
FOIA Documents
Jurisdiction Type
City
Response
Untested Kits Discovered
123
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?
Through our efforts, we have learned that the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) had 123 untested kits at their possession in July 2014. The PPD currently has a policy to test all kits that are collected and taken into custody. In 2015, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office awarded the PPD $419,788 in funding to test 600 rape kits. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance awarded the City of Philadelphia – Police $910,945 to fund the analysis of untested rape kits.
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.