2014 FOIA Request
FOIA Documents
Jurisdiction Type
City
Response
Untested Kits Discovered
1849
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?
In July 2015, USA Today reported that the Tuscon Police Department (TPD) had a rape kit backlog of 1,849 untested kits. TPD verified this number through correspondence with ENDTHEBACKLOG, and stated that these kits date back to 1999. It should be mentioned that JHFs FOIA request was in 2014 before the 2015 USA Today article.
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.