TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Attorney General Pam Bondi put added pressure Wednesday on lawmakers to increase funding for crime labs as she detailed a massive backlog of untested rape kits across the state.
"Those need to be tested because, hidden in those estimated thousands of untested rape kits, we have the potential to solve cold cases and lock up sexual predators and make Florida the safest place to live and raise a family," Bondi said during a news conference at The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay.
Bondi's news conference came as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is expected to request an additional $35 million in funding during the 2016 legislative session, including $7.76 million to raise the base salaries of people working in crime labs.
Rep. Janet Adkins, a Fernandina Beach Republican who attended Bondi's news conference, said she is working on legislation that would establish standards to adhere to when local agencies submit the test kits to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
"When a victim of sexual assault has the very intrusive process of having DNA collected, they have a reasonable expectation that that DNA be tested," Adkins said.
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, the city's crime lab had 1,944 kits to be tested in June and has sent 650 for testing, leaving 1,294 untested kits as of Sept. 9.
Uncut interview: Sheriff Williams on untested kits
"Honestly, we dropped the ball. At some point, nationally, everybody did," Sheriff Mike Williams said. "But again, it's always tough to keep up with technology. But as technology improves, I think it's incumbent upon us to look at that technology and apply it where we can to make sure we are keeping up. We owe that to the victims to do that."
Three rape kits remain untested in Clay County because either a suspected was arrested, there was a confession or the case was dropped. St. Johns and Nassau counties did not have numbers of untested rape kits available Wednesday.
Bondi, a former Hillsborough County prosecutor, said there is a priority in testing, with homicide cases first and sexual-assault cases second.
"We shouldn't see a backlog again," Williams said. "In terms of the cost of the testing with policies being where they should. We test everything now."
Leon County Sheriff's Capt. Steven Harrelson said DNA evidence is important, as many criminals don't remain in a single location.
"Having their DNA in the system allows us to go ahead and take these crimes that we don't have any evidence but DNA … once the DNA gets put into the system, we're able to solve it at that point," Harrelson said.
"This has been happening for far too long," White said. "This has been like a dirty secret that we've all kept or law enforcement has kept or the State Attorney's Office has kept."
White said Corey should go before the City Council to get more funding and not wait for the state. The State Attorney's Office said it is waiting on word of grants to help fund the testing, which could come as early as Thursday.
In August, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's crime labs completed testing requests in an average of 107 days. But as more local agencies submit untested kits, the turnaround time is expected to grow, agency spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said in an email.
The proposed pay increases -- a $10,000 increase to the annual starting pay of crime-lab analysts and a $12,000 boost to the base pay for senior crime-lab analysts -- are intended to make the agency more competitive with local law enforcement throughout Florida and the southeast United States to help keep turnover rates down, agency Commissioner Rick Swearingen told Gov. Rick Scott and the governor's Cabinet on Aug. 5.
Over the past six years, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has seen 127 crime-lab analysts leave.
The agency currently is funded for 193 crime-lab analysts and 69 senior analyst positions. The base pay for an analyst is $40,948 a year. A senior analyst starts at $43,507.
The increased demand at the crime labs is also in part boosted by an increase in requests from local agencies to investigate cases in which local police officers fire their weapons.
In the recently completed 2014-2015 budget year, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement opened 63 officer-involved shooting cases at other agencies, up from 48 a year earlier. The department started 29 such investigations in the 2010-2011 budget year, 52 in 2011-2012 and 67 the following year.
The Legislature this year didn't back the agency's request for $1.87 million to fill 14 full-time positions to assist in investigations stemming from police being involved in shootings. Lawmakers, however, set aside $300,000 for an ongoing study to determine the needs of the crime labs, including the impact of the untested rape kits.
In addition to asking for money for the state crime labs, Bondi said the state may also look at using private labs to test the kits.
"We want to get the sufficient funding to have everything produced, because we feel we can increase arrests and convictions probably in the thousands, not only in Florida but throughout the country." Bondi said. "We can't create standards without having the ability to carry those out."
News Service of Florida Assignment Manager Tom Urban contributed to this report.