The District’s Department of Forensic Sciences is featured on a television news report on what is being done right to reduce the backlog of untested sexual assault kits nationwide.
WUSA reporter Debra Alfarone did a two-part story on the issue. Monday’s installment, watch here, outlined the problem with more than 400,000 untested kits around the country. Wednesday’s second part, available here, talked about how DFS has substantially decreased its backlog and cut its turnaround time for such testing by nearly two-thirds.
“Inside this state-of-the-art building,” Ms. Alfarone says in a voice-over while showing the outside of the Consolidated Forensic Laboratory, “the District’s rape kits are being tested for DNA quicker than ever before."
Included in the story are interviews with DFS Director Houck and Forensic Scientist Shana Mills, who does DNA testing on the kits.