DETROIT — About five years ago, 11,000 abandoned rape evidence kits were found in a Detroit Police warehouse. Since then, only close to 2,000 of them have been tested. As thousands go untested, justice for victims of rape is delayed.  

This year the remaining kits will finally be tested. The Michigan State Legislature approved $4 million in spending to send the untested kits to private labs. According to the Detroit Free Press, testing the kits has led to more than 500 hits of named suspects in the national DNA database, but police and prosecutors haven’t even started following up on more than 150 of those leads. It is not easy to move forward with an investigation after rape kits are tested. In the process, witnesses and victims need to be found and interviewed. Old police files also need to be reexamined.

The Wayne County Prosecutors Office has undergone drastic cuts in staff that also make it difficult to focus on all the cases.