In cities across the country, victims of sexual assault are facing a disturbing revelation: Thousands of untested rape kits have been discovered in police evidence storage.

Many survivors have learned that they endured lengthy, invasive and potentially traumatizing exams to collect evidence that was never used.

Victims advocates and federal officials estimate hundreds of thousands of sexual assault evidence kits nationwide are untested.

No one knows the exact number because law enforcement agencies are not required to track them.

In the Inland Empire, too, the number of untested kits is unknown, but it’s said to be in the thousands.

The Riverside Police Department has been doing an inventory of nearly 900 untested kits dating back decades, and is sending some for DNA analysis. As of this month, there were still about 300 to review.

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The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has been making an effort to send more kits for testing over the past couple of years, and reported 868 untested kits still in need of evaluation in storage at stations across the county as of early in the year. Some kits date to the 1990s.

San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials said they have been reviewing nearly 1,000 untested kits in recent months. The kits date to 2005 and are within the statute of limitations.

It’s unclear how many older untested sexual assault kits the department has.

Also unknown is the number of untested kits Inland law enforcement agencies might have destroyed because the statute of limitations expired.

“There are a lot of cities with dirty laundry now,” said Ilse Knecht, policy adviser for the New York-based Joyful Heart Foundation, a victim advocacy organization that focuses on kit backlogs nationwide.

Knecht said she hopes the growing awareness about backlogs will encourage more agencies to come clean about the number of untested rape kits they have – and to deal with them.

Inland law enforcement officials say a large number of untested kits doesn’t necessarily reflect a problem.

“The numbers can be deceiving. These untested kits can create the perception that sexual assault crimes are not being properly investigated,” said Riverside County sheriff’s Capt. Scott Madden. “This perception is not accurate.”

Madden and other law enforcement officials said there are good reasons that some kits weren’t sent out for testing – and don’t need to be tested now.

For instance, he said, the suspect is often known and the case hinges on consent, not identity. Other cases might have been adjudicated before the testing was done, or the allegations were deemed unfounded.

Riverside County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Mike Manning said the department in late April adopted a new policy regarding sexual assault investigation procedures. It gives detailed guidelines for the handling and tracking of rape kit evidence.

The policy also spells out rules to decide when a rape kit can be destroyed. For instance, it states that kits will not be discarded if the suspect is still outstanding. (Click here to read the policy.)

MISTAKES MADE

The law enforcement approach of choosing which rape kits to submit for testing puts them at odds with victims advocates.

Knecht said it’s no small thing for someone to report a rape and to submit to a sexual assault examination.

“They do that expecting that their kits are going to be used,” she said.

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Knecht said the decision to test often falls to a single investigator who may not be well informed about the case.

Efforts to have all kits tested have led to cases solved and serial rapists identified, she said.

Advocates want to take police discretion out of testing, requiring all to be done, even if the suspect is known or the statute of limitations has expired. Testing could link the perpetrator to other cases.

Just knowing who the rapist was or, perhaps, finding out that the suspect is dead or in prison for another crime can bring tremendous relief to a victim, she said.

“Many fear for their lives for the rest of their lives,” Knecht said.

The victim might speak at her rapist’s parole hearing, she said, or at the sentencing in another case.

“There are many paths that survivors take to justice,” Knecht said. “Sometimes, they really just want answers.”

CRIME LABS OVERWHELMED

Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB1517, intended to push police departments to send all rape kits for testing – and to do so without delay.

But the law, to take effect next year, provides no funding, and some agencies are interpreting it as a suggestion, not a mandate.

Though it’s a worthy goal, law enforcement officials say, it’s not realistic.

Crime labs, especially those serving the Inland area, are overwhelmed. It usually takes months to get DNA results from the local labs, law enforcement officials say.

“Our crime labs don’t have the resources they need to be able to process (the kits) in an optimal way,” said John Henry, a Riverside County supervising deputy district attorney who spent many years working on sex crimes.

“It becomes a kind of triage,” he said. “Everyone is having to prioritize one rape over the next … which is frustrating for all concerned.”

One of the two labs serving the Inland area – the state Department of Justice crime lab near Riverside – is understaffed and typically takes months to provide final DNA results.

It has only three DNA-qualified analysts and five in training. For a lab its size, it should have nine, department officials said.

Though DNA testing technology has improved dramatically in recent years, law enforcement demand for DNA testing also has increased, said Steve Johnson, director of the San Bernardino County sheriff’s crime lab.

When he started in 2008, the lab had four DNA analysts and eight trainees to handle 89 DNA cases that year, Johnson said. They now have 10 analysts, two of whom are in training. But last year they handled 580 cases.

Johnson said he thinks that AB1517 is a great idea, but that its goals can’t be achieved with existing resources.

If labs are required to test all rape kits, it will delay the processing of other types of crimes, he said.

“We will do what we can with what we have,” Johnson said.

TEST EVERY KIT

Knecht said it’s disappointing to hear that some agencies aren’t interpreting the law as a mandate.

“I cringe a little when I hear that,” she said. “That’s the easy way out.”

She said grant funding is available from the federal government and other sources to help communities deal with backlogs.

Though it’s costly, kits can be sent to private labs for testing, Knecht said.

San Francisco performing artist Heather Marlowe, who became an activist for clearing rape kit backlogs after learning that her own kit sat in storage untested for years, said she was initially optimistic about the effort to pass a law mandating timely testing.

But her optimism has turned to anger over what she sees as a watered-down law that agencies can feel free to ignore.

AB1517 essentially tells authorities to “try your best,” Marlowe said. “It’s a useless bill, in my book. Essentially, there is no reform.”

In her opinion, Marlowe said, police and politicians have chosen not to take rape as seriously as other crimes.

“You can listen to them hem and haw about funding – I don’t buy it. It’s what they choose,” she said. “They should test every single kit.”

Contact the writer: 951-368-9694, sburge@pe.com