Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois State Police say for the first time in decades, there is no longer a backlog of forensic kits waiting to be tested.
The Governor says this is a result of adding more resources to the State Police’s Forensics Department, and is a historic achievement for survivors of sexual assault and other crimes.
“When I came into office there was a massive backlog of DNA from sexual assault cases waiting to be processed. In some cases kits were misplaced and left on shelves for years. In the worst cases they were lost entirely.”
State Police Director Brendan Kelly says the goal set in state statute is to process the DNA kits within 180 days. He explains how they hit the mark.
“To reduce crime and bring justice and healing to survivors we have to solve crime. Through the implementation of new forensic technologies, including robotics, we have reduced the turnaround times for processing evidence bringing those who break the law more quickly to justice.”
In the past sometimes crime victims had to wait years for evidence to be tested.
