LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Police Department has about 7,000 rape evidence kits awaiting analysis, despite having been awarded nearly $4 million for improved DNA testing, a city official said Monday.

"It is beyond disturbing that the thousands of victims who have undergone the invasive ordeal of these four- to six-hour tests do not even know that their evidence is still untested," said City Controller Laura Chick, who did an audit of the backlog.

Chick found there are 7,038 rape kits in freezers awaiting testing. The backlog has increased by up to 900 cases each year.

At least 217 of the untested kits have exceeded the statute of limitation and are useless, Chick said.

She blamed the problem on poor planning, insufficient hiring and inadequate distribution of money, and said the city needs to eliminate the backlog within the next three years.

Los Angeles was awarded nearly $4 million in federal funding to improve the analysis capacity of its crime labs.

Police Chief William Bratton said the department has a five-year plan to work through the backlog. If the city can find the money to hire additional personnel, he wants to complete testing of the remaining kits sooner.

"We have capability," Bratton said at a news conference Monday night. "We have the skill sets. We just don't have the resources, but we certainly have the desire" to address the backlog.

A state law requires police agencies to notify rape victims if their evidence kits have not been tested within two years.

Councilman Jack Weiss, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, and fellow City Council members Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti have proposed hiring 16 employees for the crime lab in January, at a cost of $700,000 for the remainder of the fiscal year.

The LAPD's Serology/DNA Unit has 30 criminalists and 13 lab technicians.