In too many categories, Louisiana is at the bottom of the rankings when it comes policies that prioritize women's health and safety.
That's why we are pleased to see a centralized statewide rape kit tracking system is up and running as of earlier this month. The system was mandated under a law passed last year by the Legislature and signed by then-Gov. John Bel Edwards. State Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, who authored the law, said she was prompted to do it by hearing from a victim who had repeatedly tried and failed to get information about her rape kit.
The new system, which will be managed by the Louisiana State Police, will allow victims to anonymously track the status of the kits. All law enforcement agencies, crime labs and district attorneys are required to participate.
The system should help prevent the problems of the past, when hundreds if not thousands of victims reported their crimes, were examined and then ended up in limbo with no way to find out what had happened to the evidence from those exams. Advocates complained that often the kits were collected by medical personnel and never tested by investigators due to backlogs at the State Police Crime Lab and others.
In one notable example from 2022, a New Orleans police officer was charged with rape 16 months after the victim reported it because the kit was held up at the State Police Crime Lab. The case moved only after this newspaper asked about delays in the case.
The State Police lab gets roughly half of the rape kits collected in the state. Five other crime labs around the state handle the remainder.
A spokesperson told reporter Meghan Friedmann that earlier this month, the State Police Crime Lab had a backlog of more than 500 cases, the majority of which were from New Orleans.
Backlogs in testing sexual assault kits have been a persistent problem in Louisiana. In 2015, there were more than 1,000 untested kits held by law enforcement across the state. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice found that the New Orleans Police Department had more than 800 untested rape kits, some of which dated back more than two decades. A subsequent report from the New Orleans Inspector General found that detectives in the NOPD had failed to follow up on nearly 90% of the cases reported between 2011 and 2013.
A second law, passed this year, will also require law enforcement to pick up kits within 72 hours. The new laws will help increase the accountability and timeliness of how the kits are processed, Mizell said.
We do not harbor illusions that the new system signals a turning point in regards to combating sexual assault. It is a small step forward but a clearly necessary one. We hope it helps bring comfort to the victims and justice to the perpetrators.