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The NJ rape kit registry would allow for evidence tracking

Online Niel October 30, 2024

2 minute reading

A bill that would create a rape kit tracking system in New Jersey passed the state Senate unanimously Monday afternoon.

The measure, sponsored by state senators Renee Burgess and Paul Moriarty, would require the state’s attorney general to establish a sexual assault forensic evidence kit, or rape kit, tracking system.

Burgess said after the vote that the bill “improves the current system, bringing justice to those who have waited so long because of an outdated system” and that it “can do nothing but help victims.”

The system would create an online database that would allow a person, including a victim, a law enforcement officer, an employee of a health care facility or laboratory, and anyone else deemed appropriate by the attorney general to track a sexual assault forensic evidence kit. through the chain of custody from the time of collection to transfer to a local law enforcement agency, deposit to a laboratory, and final disposition.

According to 2022 state data, the most recent available, there were 1,536 reported rapes and 251 arrests.

Other rape kit legislation has been introduced in Trenton

A companion bill in the Assembly is still in committee.

This isn’t the only legislation introduced this session to address rape kits. A bill sponsored by state senators Joseph Cryan and Troy Singleton would be aimed at addressing the stockpile of kits to be tested.

That bill — which passed the Senate Bill and the state Public Safety Committee and now awaits consideration in the Senate Budget Committee — requires that all test kits be sent for review if the victim agrees. It is also backdated for kits collected from July 1, 2019 to the present, to be sent for testing by April 1, 2025, to eliminate the backlog of kits and for any other kits to be submitted from the Division of Criminal Justice.

It would require testing facilities to alert law enforcement of each sexual assault forensic evidence kit collected from a victim within 24 hours if the victim consents and requests the law enforcement agency to take possession of the kit within three working days.

Kits from victims who did not report the crime or consent to the release of evidence will be retained for 20 years, or in the case of a minor, 20 years after the victim turns 18.

This comes after Attorney General Matt Platkin issued a new mandate in August requiring all kits presented to law enforcement to be tested.

“We have raised our own standard for a survivor-centered approach to justice, and victims will benefit,” Platkin said in a statement at the time. “This critical update, along with a proposed rule change that would make a defendant’s commission evidence of prior domestic violence, child abuse, or sexual assault admissible at trial, will increase the likelihood of successfully prosecuting serial offenders and mitigate the serious threat to public safety. they present.”

Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. E-mail: [email protected]