The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Rape-kit backlog prompts law
Electronic tracking aims to improve evidence processing
HARTFORD — Connecticut will establish an electronic tracking system for sexual assault collection kits, the General Assembly has decided.
“This is really a nationwide problem,” said state Rep. J.P. Sredzinski, R-Monroe, a member of the Public Safety Committee. “There is a national backlog of rape kits that sit untested with very little followthrough for whatever reason.”
The House voted unanimously last week to change state provisions around rape kits.
National data is not collected but, according to advocates, thousands of these kits, containing DNA data that could solve sex crimes, sit untested in police stations and crime laboratories across the country. Connecticut’s new tracking system for these kits will be implemented by Oct. 1, the legislation says. The bill also requires hospitals and other facilities that collect these kits to contact a sexual assault counselor for victims. It also tasks the Commission on the Standardization of the Collection of Evidence in Sexual Assault Investigations with developing policies to provide victims with more regular information on the kits that collected.
The House vote followed
“The proper testing of these evidence kits is both a matter of justice ... and a matter of public safety.” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy
unanimous approval in the Senate. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is expected to sign the bill into law. The legislation is the result of the Sexual Assault Kit Working Group Malloy established in 2016.
“The proper testing of these evidence kits is both a matter of justice for the victim and a matter of public safety,” he said. “The evidence secured through the collection of DNA can eliminate or identify a suspect, identify someone with previous convictions, link cases, and identify serial rapists.”