TENNESSEE, USA — Major progress is being made in the Mid-South in reducing the amount of time it takes to process sexual assault kits, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
At the end of 2022, the average turnaround time of a rape kit in Shelby County was almost 44 weeks, nearly a full year. As of March of this year, that processing period is down all the way to under 12 weeks.
State Sen. Brent Taylor credits the improvement in cutting the processing time to the amount of money they’ve poured into the issue, including hiring close to 50 new scientists.
“I think there's still a little more work to do. I believe we can get that turnaround time down a little bit more, because it's important that we're able to turn around those sexual assault kits as quickly as we can,” Taylor said.
The Memphis Area Women’s Council is grateful for the progress but agrees more work needs to be done.
“Rapists are roaming around freely all over the city. That’s a given,” said Deborah Clubb, the executive director.
Clubb said the mental anguish a rape kit going untested can cause is enormous.
“It's completely devastating. It's completely shattering, and I have certainly known women here that have experienced that very thing," she said.
The issue of delays in processing times in the Mid-South has come under the microscope in recent years. The City of Memphis is currently in a class-action lawsuit over thousands of rape kits that went completely untested.
“Progress has been made, [but] it is not enough. I think the state and the city will agree to that. But it beats a year or two or never,” said attorney Gary Smith, who is representing the rape survivors in the case.
One major change the Women’s Council wants that could get the processing time down even more is moving the crime lab back to Shelby County.
Currently, all of those kits must be taken to Jackson to be processed.