A new report from the Government Accountability Office reveals a serious shortage of medical examiners who collect DNA evidence in rape cases.
The study, which looked at six states — Florida, Massachusetts, Colorado, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Oregon — found the number of examiners available in those states did not meet the need for exams, especially in rural areas.
Wisconsin officials, for example, told the GAO nearly half of all counties in the state do not have any examiners available. In healthcare facilities where examiners are available, officials said they are typically available in hospitals on an on-call basis, although the number available varies by facility and may not provide enough capacity to offer examiner coverage 24 hours, seven days a week.
The states cited various challenges to maintaining a supply of examiners, including limited availability of training, weak stakeholder support for examiners and low examiner retention rates.
Officials in Wisconsin estimated that while the state trained 540 examiners over a two-year period, only 42 of those examiners were still practicing in the state at the end of those two years. Meanwhile, only one hospital in Colorado — Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs — staffs examiners 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to a Washington Post report.
The GAO notes that data on the number of examiners nationwide and in selected states are limited or unavailable. However, approximately 227 programs in 49 states that received federal funding from the Department of Justice reported providing training for more than 6,000 examiners in 2013, the most recent data show, according to the GAO.
The GAO said state officials described strategies that can help address these challenges, such as implementing web-based training courses, clinical practice labs, mentorship programs and multidisciplinary teams that responded to rape cases.