The Kansas City Police Department and the Kansas Bureau of Investigations is receiving grant money to help cut down on its rape kit backlog.
“It’s a huge benefit to our community in general,” said Julie Donelon, the President and CEO of the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault.
Donelon said rape kit testing helps to bring justice to survivors and is used as a modern day crime-fighting tool.
"There have been many cases in MOCSA, where someone has come forward, and reported a rape and later on found out that the DNA matched someone else who had been sexually assaulted and so we were able to use that in the investigation and in the prosecution of that person."
As of May 2015, KCPD had roughly 1,300 rape kits sitting on its shelves.
KCPD will receive $337,197 for rape kit testing and KBI will receive $2.1 million.
From hair collection to finger nail scrapings, the small kit provides critical evidence.
“We need funding to make sure there are detectives to work those cases. If you think about Kansas City alone, that's 1,300 cases, now we need that support for those detectives,” said Donelon.
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Lexi Sutter can be reached at alexandra.sutter@kshb.com.
