Funding, Tracking System Move Forward Rape Kit Testing

West Virginia has received more than $1 million in federal funding to help improve its testing of backlogged and future sexual assault kits in the state.

The Herald-Dispatch reports the U.S. Department of Justice says in a news release that West Virginia was one of nine jurisdictions to be awarded part of over $13.6 million in funds to expand sexual assault kit testing through the department’s National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative.

Last week, the state Division of Justice and Community Services launched an online system that tracks the kits as they go from health care facilities to law enforcement agencies for investigation and then to a forensics testing lab.

West Virginia is currently taking inventory of and testing about 2,500 kits identified as part of an estimated 16-year backlog.