SEXUAL ASSAULT KITS PROCESSED

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has completed a three-year project to process a backlog of sexual assault kits. The kits are used by medical personnel to gather and preserve physical evidence in sexual assault cases. The evidence collected may contain DNA of a suspect and exonerate those who have been wrongly accused. A total of 8,023 sexual assault kits were processed resulting in 1,814 hits, which will allow law enforcement agencies to compare DNA profiles electronically so crimes can be linked to each other and known offenders.