As Ohio attorney general, Mike DeWine cleared nearly 14,000 untested rape kits off police evidence locker shelves and had them analyzed by forensic scientists. But years later, a lack of reporting by law enforcement agencies about how many kits are being tested could put that progress in jeopardy.
Without the data, it's difficult to determine if a backlog of untested kits is building again, the governor and Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said.
"Knowing the numbers is important," DeWine said. "It's sunlight on the problem."
In 2025, 61 law enforcement departments reported sexual assault kit data to the state, but 940 other agencies did not report data to the attorney general's office. Some small departments may not have had cases to report but the agencies that
failed to report include larger police departments as well.
DeWine and Wilson said they will form a working group of experts to determine why so many agencies aren't reporting kit data to the state and what changes need to be made in the law. The goal is to have recommendations by early December, given that both Wilson and DeWine leave office in early January.
Wilson said the current reporting requirements can be cumbersome and there is no penalty for failure to report.
The Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence applauded the move by DeWine and Wilson.
"Ohio’s state agencies, law enforcement professionals, forensic nurses, rape crisis centers, and other partners have already devoted significant work to improving the response to sexual violence," the group said in a written statement. "OAESV welcomes the opportunity to build on those efforts and serve as a resource in ensuring that any improvements are clear, effective and centered on survivors’ needs, privacy and reporting options."
Clearing Ohio's rape kit backlog
After becoming attorney general in 2011, DeWine used the office's bully pulpit to push 294 law enforcement agencies across 75 counties to send 13,931 previously untested kits to the state crime lab for analysis. Some of the kits dated back to assaults that occurred in 1971.
The massive project led to 5,000 matches to profiles in a DNA database, identification of 300 serial rapists and a law change requiring police to submit kits for testing within 30 days of determining a crime had occurred. Ohio also created a tracking system for survivors to follow where their kit is in the system.
"We wanted justice for the victims and the victims weren't getting justice. They weren't getting any information at all many times. Quite frankly, the further we dug into it, the worse it looked," DeWine said. "When we started, we had absolutely no idea how many old rape kits were sitting in police departments all over the state."
Rape kits cost $2,500 to complete
Tammy Robertson, a forensic nurse with the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, said most police departments now send sexual assault kits to crime labs right after they've been collected but some departments interpret the law to mean if they don't determine a crime happened, the kit doesn't need to be analyzed.
Sexual assault kits take about four hours to complete in an emergency room and cost about $2,500, depending on the hospital system. Police crime labs, including the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, analyze the biological material from the kits for DNA and upload those genetic profiles to a database that can be searched by law enforcement when investigating crimes.
Robertson said she believes all kits should be sent to crime labs for analysis. DeWine said he agrees.
"She's absolutely right," he said. Even if a victim declines to testify or there are other problems with a criminal case, it's still worthwhile to have the kits analyzed, he said.
"It's valuable to all of us to have that person's DNA in the database because they may do this again," DeWine said.
State government reporter Laura Bischoff can be reached at lbischoff@usatodayco.com and @lbischoff on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Police are supposed to report rape kit data to the state. Most aren't
