Maryland Police Bypassing Federal Funds For Rape Kit Testing

BALTIMORE (AP) — Justice Department records show that Maryland authorities are not taking advantage of federal funding under a nationwide initiative to help states address backlogs of untested rape kits.

The Baltimore Sun reports (http://bsun.md/2nXSkir ) that records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that only Baltimore County applied for federal funding under the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, and its request was rejected.

The newspaper reports that Maryland has 3,700 untested kits, but that many police agencies say they haven't applied for funds because they do not consider their untested kits to be a backlog.

Among the reasons police said testing was unnecessary were that the suspect's identity was already known, investigators believed the accusation to be false, or the victim chose not to participate in a prosecution.

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