Phoenix Police Crime Lab Significantly Reduces Backlog of Sexual Assault Kits

​The Phoenix Police Department recognizes the profound impact that sexual assaults have on victims. Over the last nine years we have participated in a Sexual Assault Working Group lead by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, the AZ Governor's Task Force on Sexual Assault, and formed a sexual assault response team. These efforts reflect our ongoing commitment to supporting survivors in a victim centered and trauma informed response to sexual assault. A key component of this initiative has been the remodeling of our Family Advocacy Center which provides a safe and supportive environment for victims to navigate the trauma they have experienced. The department also implemented a sexual assault kit (SAK) tracking system in 2016 which predates the state tracking requirement by two years. The department continues to actively focus on increasing the engagement with victims through multiple technology solutions including a victims' portal in 2025 for sexual assault cases.

The Phoenix Police Department led the adoption of a "test all" policy in the state of Arizona for the testing of SAKs and has maintained this practice over the past eight years. During this time, the department has consistently utilized advanced analytical techniques, based on national best practices, to ensure thorough and effective processing of all submitted SAKs to include all previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits dating back to 1978.

Thanks to an approval in September 2023 by the Mayor and City Council that increased the ability for the outsourcing of SAKs, the Phoenix Police Department has made significant progress in addressing the backlog of pending cases. This has enabled the department to test hundreds of SAKs and clear out a significant number of the 800 SAKs that were pending while receiving an average of approximately 50 new SAKs each month.

Since then, 930 SAKs have been tested, reducing the backlog of untested pending SAKs to 160 with the majority of those expected to be sent out for processing in the next month. In the last eight years, the department has processed over 6,000 SAKs.

"Solving these terrible crimes is one of our highest priorities, and I'm proud of the progress we've made to cut the sexual assault kit backlog," Mayor Kate Gallego, who has pushed for reducing the backlog since her time as a City Councilmember, said. "We're going to eliminate the backlog once and for all-and keep it there."

Assistant Crime Lab Administrator Ben Swanholm emphasized the critical role of support from city leadership: "The Mayor and Phoenix City Council provided great support for the laboratory and its operations to reduce the backlog of sexual assault kits and provide high quality forensic science services to all crimes and victims of crimes in the City of Phoenix."

Staffing

Along with the outsourcing of SAK testing, the laboratory has worked to fill vacancies and hire more forensic scientists with the goal to increase processing capacity to process all kits in a timely manner.

"The laboratory's Forensic DNA Section has implemented a training program to address increasing the output of DNA analysis as expediently as possible," Swanholm shared. "The first 10 trainees that are participating in this program will be completing their training during the summer of 2025."

The department's hiring, on-boarding, and training process for forensic scientists is a tiered and complex program that complies with national quality standards and takes at least two years before a forensic scientist achieves full competency.

"The Forensic DNA Section will progressively be increasing their productivity as training is completed and additional personnel are hired resulting in additional capacity for the testing of sexual assault kits by the department," Swanholm said.

The Phoenix Crime Laboratory is actively hiring for eight vacancies in the Forensic DNA Section. Applications and hiring information can be found at www.phoenix.gov/jobs.

Next Year

Looking forward to 2025, the department anticipates an expansion of the Victim ​​Information Portal launched earlier in 2024 which will include sexual assault cases. "The laboratory looks forward to working with the Department to implement the improved notification and communication with victims of crime," said Swanholm.

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