Sexual Assault Kit

Gov. Jared Polis is seated at a table wearing a dark grey suit and blue shirt. He is looking up at Rep. Jenny Willford, second from right, who is wearing a dark jacket and black and white patterned dress. Sen. Mike Weissman stands behind Polis wearing a light grey jacket. Other people stand around them wearing dark clothes and they are all against a dark blue backdrop.

News

Gov. Polis signs law to reduce Colorado鈥檚 rape kit backlog

Lucas Brady Woods

The law will increase oversight over the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and try to triple the turnaround time for sexual assault evidence kits.

A forensic scientist reviews evidence at the state crime lab in Connecticut.

Politics

Colorado鈥檚 crime lab has been in crisis. Here鈥檚 how another state fixed theirs.

Chas Sisk

Connecticut鈥檚 forensics lab has not had a backlog of cases for the better part of a decade. How it came to run so well may hold answers for Colorado as its lab moves forward from a scandal and addresses the long wait for test results.

Colorado lawmakers chat among themselves on the last day of the 2025 legislative session.

Politics

The 5 biggest themes of Colorado鈥檚 2025 legislative session

Jesse Paul

Democrats at the Capitol defied Gov. Jared Polis and took steps to push back against the Trump administration. A big slate of gun bills passed. Lawmakers tried to clear hurdles halting sex assault investigations.

This Thursday, April 2, 2015 photo shows an evidence bag from a sexual assault case in the biology lab at the Houston Forensic Science Center in Houston. Legislators in more than 20 states are considering _ and in some cases, passing _ laws that include auditing all kits and deadlines for submitting and processing DNA evidence. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

Politics

CBI hires outside labs to chip away at evidence backlog in sexual assaults

Bente Birkeland

The agency is still months late in processing DNA evidence, but it hopes to bring down turnaround times.