Phoenix Police Department officials last week said they are making progress working through a backlog of sexual assualt kits that had accumlated over time and could be used to potentially prosecute crimes.

The effort has been made through work with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, the Arizona Governor's Task Force on Sexual Assault the Phoenix City Council, officials said in a release.

A move in 2023 to allow the kits to be tested by outsourcing them has reduced the backlog from about 800 kits to about 160 kits currently, officials said. Police collect roughly 50 new sexual assault kits per month.

“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." 

The city also has worked to reduce vacancies in its forensic lab to keep pace with the number of sexual assault kits coming in.

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

To keep cases moving, the city launched the Victim Information Portal online which will begin included sexual assault cases starting next year.