VOL. 129 | NO. 180 | Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Memphis Police have found in recent weeks 196 more rape kits in previously unsearched areas where police store evidence, Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong told Memphis City Council members Tuesday, Sept. 16.

The kits date back to 1976 and bring the total number of rape kits in the backlog, including rape kits processed in some way since last year, to 12,360.

The newest additions to a backlog police first announced a year ago were found as the group of police officers on the backlog team increased and began a more detailed search of evidence storage areas Armstrong described as “massive” in size – “at least two to three football fields long.”

“If you remember when we first came forward, I told you that the numbers would change,” Armstrong said. “I told you that we would not stop until we were satisfied that we had done everything that we could to ensure that every rape kit that was in the possession of the Memphis Police Department had been located and had been funneled through the process.”

Deputy Police Chief Jim Harvey said the recent searches were for additional evidence and information about the rape kits police had already found.

“They were not listed on any evidence inventory that would have revealed their location,” Harvey said. “In the coming weeks, we may discover others.”

The backlog had previously extended back to 1985. The discovery of the even older kits pushes the timeline back to a time before computer inventory records were common and Memphis Police were still working out of the old police building at Adams Avenue and Second Street before police brass moved to the nearby Criminal Justice Center.

It also predates the use of DNA analysis in Tennessee but came at a time when the Memphis Rape Crisis Center, which takes the body evidence from rape victims that is contained in the kits, was one of the few of its kind in the country.

“It is unprecedented for any city to have retained sexual assault evidence dating as far back as what we have,” Harvey said. “There are more and older kits in our inventory than anywhere else. … It’s a blessing for us that we had the first rape crisis center in Tennessee, but it’s also a curse. We don’t destroy evidence. We have maintained it through the years.”

By the police department’s count, 2,495 of the rape kits in the backlog need more testing and have been sent for that testing. Another 7,800 kits still may need additional analysis.

“It is going to be a long process,” Armstrong said. “It’s probably going to be a multi-year process.”