Untested Evidence: Not Just a Crime Lab Issue
A new study examines forensic evidence caseloads in law enforcement agencies.
National Institute of Justice
The large backlog of evidence awaiting analysis in the nation’s crime labs has received much attention of late.
A recent survey funded by the National Institute of Justice and conducted by RTI International looked at a related issue: forensic evidence stored in police property rooms that has not gone to a lab for analysis. Based on a survey of more than 2,000 police departments, researchers determined that forensic evidence existed but had not been sent to a lab in:
- 14 percent of open homicide cases
- 18 percent of open rape cases
- 23 percent of open property crime cases
There are many legitimate reasons why evidence collected from a crime scene would not go to a lab. Evidence may not go to a lab if prosecutors drop the charges against the alleged perpetrator or if someone pleads guilty to the crime. In rape cases, officials may not analyze sperm or other evidence if consent, but not identity, is the contested issue. Finally, some evidence is not sent to the lab because it would not help identify a perpetrator or solve the crime. But these reasons may not explain the entire inventory of unanalyzed property room evidence.
Untested evidence in law enforcement agencies is not considered part of the backlog because it is not actually awaiting analysis in labs. Understanding the policies behind these numbers may help improve how law enforcement uses forensic evidence.