Manatee County law enforcement: No rape kit backlog here

MANATEE -- Law enforcement officials in Manatee County say they have no rape kit testing backlog.

Gov. Rick Scott signed into law Thursday legislation setting deadlines for such kits to be processed and tested at crime labs.

At the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, there is no backlog of rape kits to be tested, with the tests averaging about four weeks, according to sheriff's office spokesman Dave Bristow.

"Any ones that we were going to test have been tested," Bristow said.

The Bradenton Police Department is going through about 90 kits in its possession to determine what needs to be done with them, according to Lt. James Racky. The BPD has already determined about 70 did not have to be sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to be tested and the remainder are still connected with open cases.

"As of right now everything that we have sent off to be tested has been returned," Racky said. "We are going through all of our cases now to see if any need to be disposed."

Racky said there are several reasons a kit might not be tested, such as an investigation determining sex was consensual, a victim recants the allegation, a state attorney's office decides not to prosecute or a suspect pleads guilty so the kit results are not needed for prosecution.

Jessica De Leon, Herald law enforcement reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7049. You can follow her on Twitter@JDeLeon1012.

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 11:23 PM with the headline "Manatee County law enforcement: No rape kit backlog here ."