Public officials and advocates are asking for help to clear a massive backlog of rape kits in Detroit.
The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Jake Neher has more.
More than 11,000 unopened and untested rape kits were found in a Detroit police storage unit in 2009. Since then, two thousand have been tested. Officials are now launching an unprecedented fundraising effort to clear the rest of the backlog.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette says this isn’t just a Detroit issue.
“These creeps who do this, they may be in other parts of the state,” he says.
The state has already contributed $4 million to the effort. Organizers hope to raise ten million dollars in private money and have the backlog cleared in about five years.