The Louisiana Legislative Auditor conducted an audit of the handling of sexual assault kits collected from July 2024 through December 2025. Performance Audit Manager Kristin Jacobs says the audit found that nearly one out of every five had not been submitted to a crime lab for testing.
“We found that 337, or about 18% of reported sexual assault kits, were never sent to a crime lab as required by state law,” Jacobs noted.
Jacobs says it’s important to note that that doesn’t necessarily mean that those sexual assault kits were mishandled – it could mean that law enforcement has closed the case, or the kits could still be pending lab testing. As such, Jacobs says the Legislative Auditor is recommending expanding status classifications of these kits.
“We recommended that they expand what statuses they use in the tracking system, so that they can indicate when a kit was not tested, why it wasn’t tested and things like that,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs says the auditor is also recommending that the law be clarified to indicate which sexual assault kits need to be tested.
“While the law requires these kits to be submitted within 30 days to a crime lab, it doesn’t explicitly state that all reported kits need to be tested,” Jacobs explained.