Utah crime lab officials are feeling optimistic as they work to speed up the time it takes to process sexual assault evidence kits, after lawmakers approved a measure last month that sends more than $1 million to go toward this effort.
State crime lab director Jay Henry said Thursday that they are also working to process more than 500 kits at the facility and launch an online tracking system for sexual assault victims to keep tabs on their evidence.
He says it takes more than one year to process all but the most urgent kits. His goal is to test evidence in 30 days.
A study released last year found that Utah is so far behind in processing rape kits that only about one-third of the samples taken from 2010-2013 had been tested by the end of 2015.