More than 900 Ohio agencies, including the Columbus Division of Police and OhioHealth, failed to submit required sexual assault kit data to the state last year, and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office is now trying to figure out why. Columbus police alone used more than 400 sexual assault kits in cases last year, yet the department is listed among those that never reported that information to the state.
The gap surfaced in a report examined by NBC4 WCMH-TV, which found that hundreds of law enforcement agencies and medical providers across the state did not submit annual sexual assault kit metrics as required by law. Ohio requires hospitals and law enforcement agencies to participate in its sexual assault kit tracking system, which covers kit collection, inventory, storage, and testing, according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. The system allows survivors to anonymously access information about a kit’s status and location.
A Columbus police spokesperson told the station no one was available to be interviewed on the topic, the outlet’s report notes. OhioHealth’s forensic nurse coordinator, Sara Johnson, pushed back on the idea that kits are falling through the cracks internally, telling the station that OhioHealth keeps a detailed log of every sexual assault kit it collects and enters each one into the attorney general’s tracking system, tracking who collects evidence, when and where it happens, and every step in between.
A Working Group Forms to Find the Breakdown
Attorney General Andy Wilson announced on Tuesday that his office has formed a 17-member working group co-chaired by Senior Adviser Kristen Slaper and Deputy Attorney General James Lowe to pin down where the reporting disconnect is occurring, according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. The panel brings together regional stakeholders including Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant, OhioHealth Clinical Nurse Manager Sheree Ford, and Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence CEO Rosa Beltré, per the same announcement. The group also includes victim advocates and additional representatives from law enforcement and medical organizations, per the station’s report.
Wilson took office as Ohio’s attorney general in June 2026, as Hoodline reported in August. The working group is tasked with studying the current data reporting system and determining what needs to change to streamline the process and ensure agencies actually participate, the station’s report notes. Its first meeting is expected in the coming weeks, with a report and recommendations due to Ohio lawmakers by the end of 2026.
Advocates Call for Transparency and Accountability
Emily Gemar, director of public policy with the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, said more accountability is needed and that measures must be put in place to ensure sexual assault kit information is actually collected, according to the station’s reporting. She said changes are needed so survivors can have transparency about their cases, adding that the working group should clarify what is going wrong in Ohio and make sure survivors’ voices are represented in any fix.
Johnson, OhioHealth’s forensic nurse coordinator, framed the effort similarly, saying the goal is to identify the problems and fix them.
Why the Stakes Are High for Unprocessed Kits
Ohio law separately requires police agencies to submit a sexual assault kit to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation or another accredited crime lab within 30 days after law enforcement picks up the kit, according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. That timeline exists because of what happened the last time kits sat unprocessed: a multi-year statewide testing initiative completed in February 2018 followed the submission of 13,931 previously untested kits to the state lab and produced about 5,000 DNA database matches.
Ohio’s 2023 House Bill 33 codified an annual statewide inventory of untested rape kits and created an ongoing $1 million annual allocation for the Ohio Sexual Assault Investigations Grant Program, according to End The Backlog. That annual reporting framework is what exposed the current compliance gap, even though Ohio cleared its physical backlog of nearly 14,000 untested kits in 2018. Whether this year’s missing reports stem from redundant software, administrative burden, or simple noncompliance is the question Wilson’s working group has been asked to answer before its findings reach lawmakers later this year.
