Report details Oregon rape kit backlog testing success

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A new report says the elimination of Oregon’s backlog of untested rape kits has led to hundreds of new DNA profiles being added to a national database and multiple cases have been prosecuted.

The report from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office was released Tuesday.

Oregon was one of 20 states to benefit from a sweeping, $38 million grant program created in 2015 to process thousands of untested rape kits across the country.

KOIN reports the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office and its law enforcement partners around Oregon worked to test 2,913 sexual assault kits under the grant program.

Through that testing, officials were able to enter 882 DNA profiles into the FBI’s national CODIS database. More than half of those profiles matched those already in the database.

So far, those DNA matches have led to six convictions across Oregon.