A city councilor is calling for swift action to replace the director of the Boston Police Crime Lab amid revelations that he’s been out on leave for over a year while the lab struggles to meet state-mandated deadlines for testing sexual assault kits.

Councilor Ed Flynn probed Boston police officials about the director’s absence at a Friday committee hearing, where he was told the lab’s leader, Kevin Kosiorek, was placed on leave in August 2022 pending the results of an internal investigation that should be wrapped up within the next 30 days.

The nearly-two year period without a permanent director “has hurt the crime lab,” Flynn said. “I think it has hurt the morale of the staff. I think it has had an impact on the testing of rape kits, and it’s not good management practice.”

Police officials said the lab has not gone without leadership during that time period, with an interim director in place.

Flynn, however, honed in on the $147,000 salary Kosiorek was said to be taking in during his mandatory leave, at a time when staffing shortages and a lack of monetary resources have been cited as leading factors for the department’s inability to meet the state’s 30-day testing deadline for sexual assault kits.

The lack of permanent leadership, Flynn said, means that other department employees tasked with filling that shortage at the crime lab cannot dedicate themselves completely to the laboratory, as they have regular duties to fulfill.

“People are doing the best that they can, but they are not dedicated to the job 100% of the time,” Flynn said.

The day’s meeting was centered around a hearing order Flynn filed with the City Council in March that sought to foster discussion around ways to resolve a staffing shortage that was leading to a significant delay in testing the sexual assault kits that are crucial to work aimed at identifying rapists.

The lab, he states in the order, performs work around processing, examining and analyzing evidence, including the kits, that is “indispensable” to the police department’s ability to investigate and solve crimes.

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The order cites a report from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security that found half, or 93 of 186 kits, were not tested within the 30-day window in fiscal year 2023 — from June 2022 to June 2023. By comparison, the State Police Crime Laboratory tested 96% of the 714 kits it received within 30 days in FY23.

The latest numbers also compare poorly to prior results from the BPD crime lab, which in FY22, failed to test 39 of the 144 sexual assault kits within 30 days, and 24 of the 123 kits in FY21, or roughly 27% and 19.5%, respectively.

“It is critical that sexual assault kits and evidence from sexual assault survivors be processed in a timely manner,” said Flynn, who made suggestions around investing in better technology and waiving the residency requirement for the next director and other civilian workers in the crime lab to attract more job interest.

Police officials defended the crime lab’s work, saying that the 30-day testing window imposed by the state legislature in 2018 is prohibitive. They sought the Council’s help to loosen up what they described as an unrealistic deadline, and advocate for more resources come budget time.

Boston Police Deputy Superintendent Victor Evans emphasized that every kit gets tested and sexual assault investigations and arrests do not wait for that testing.

“We prioritize victims and survivors in everything we do,” Evans said. “We are committed to providing them with services and support in addition to justice and closure.”

Kevin Larade, director of forensic quality control for the police crime lab, added, “These people are working their rear ends off. They’re doing a great job. It’s frustrating to see the articles in the newspaper where it says we’re failing at sexual assault kits and I don’t think we’re failing.”