In addition to the $3 million that the was approved in the 2017 Legislative Session today $1.35 million more was allocated to address the backlog of sexual assault kit testing .Â
Attorney General Adam Laxalt issued a statement emphasizing that the funding from Assembly Bill 97 was addressing the backlog, but "today's initiative is a significant step towards making mandatory testing in Nevada a reality." The extra funding, which came from non-taxpayer settlement moneys from the Attorney General's Office, will be used to help build out the local labs in Washoe County and Las Vegas and allow for the hiring of new lab technicians in both.Â
There were nearly 8,000 untested sexual assault kits going back to 1985Â throughout Nevada prior to this recent surge in testing.
Nearly 6,000 of those kits were in Las Vegas and as of August they've sent out 3,398 of those to be tested. It does take time to process the kits, so far Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department have received results for 1,697 of them. That has added 442 DNA profiles into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which led to 162 hits. The Attorney General's Office says this means a "significant number of the kits being tested are from serial sexual offenders."
In northern Nevada about 30% of the backlogged kits have been tested. Of those 346 tested kits 58 DNA profiles have been added resulting in 27 CODIS hits.Â
Overall, the Attorney General's Office says that there have been 11 criminal prosecutions because of this testing.Â
