These two Massachusetts police departments said it would take more than 30 hours to check evidence rooms for untested rape kits

They were also the only two departments that said they would need to charge a fee for the information.

July 12, 2017

Most police departments questioned by MassLive about the number of untested rape kits among items in the evidence room shelves were able to produce an answer quickly and free of cost, but two departments said it would take hours of work to determine that information.

The New Bedford and Fitchburg police departments were the only two of roughly one dozen departments who told MassLive they would have to search through their evidence rooms for a considerable number of hours to determine the number of untested sexual assault evidence collection kits, known colloquially as rape kits.

They were also the only two departments that said they would need to charge a fee for the information.

MassLive asked some of the state's largest police departments and the State Police Crime Lab how many untested rape kits were on their shelves. Rape kits that go untested invalidate the traumatic experience of a rape survivor and do not submit DNA into state and national databases, which could help identify serial rapists or connect suspects to different crimes.

"The New Bedford Police Department does not have a database containing the number of all untested rape kits contained in the evidence room. The only way to provide data would be to physically go through all of the evidence in the evidence room to determine that information," New Bedford Police Chief Joseph Cordeiro wrote in a response to MassLive's FOIA request.