LAPD behind on processing 7,000 rape kits

Controller Laura Chick calls her audit finding a backlog of 7,000 unprocessed rape evidence kits "one of the most startling and important audits " since she was elected seven years ago. From her release:

My report on the LAPD's backlog of DNA rape kits shows around 7,000 unanalyzed kits sitting on freezer shelves. Though the LAPD has been awarded $4 million in grant funds over the last four years, the backlog continues to grow.

The Senator who authored in 2004 the legislation for federal grant funds said, "If there's a rape kit sitting on a shelf, there's a victim without justice."

In the late 1990's, the City of New York discovered it had 17,000 untested rape kits. Their mayor declared this situation unacceptable. He found both the political will and the dollars needed to analyze all the backlogged kits and gave the necessary resources so that the backlog did not reoccur. This took only three years. Cannot Los Angeles do as well as New York City?!

The whole thing.