COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) – The South Carolina General Assembly Legislative Audit Board conducted an audit of the South Carolina Division of Law Enforcement’s sexual assault kit tracking system and found that improvements need to be made.

SLED’s tracking system, which is called Track-Kit, allows sexual assault survivors to track kits presented to the division from distribution, to collection, to processing, to storage. It also allows them to see the location and status of their kits.

LAC officials said SLED implemented the tracking system late, having launched the Track-Kit on Feb. 20, 2024, nearly 21 months after the June 1, 2022, deadline required by state law. They also said SLED did not communicate adequately with other agencies and held only two task force meetings on the system.

Lawmakers also pointed out that SLED’s Track-Kit database was incomplete, with only 763 total kits in the system as of July 1, 2024, and 1,987 kits awaiting testing at the SLED lab as of October 2023.

The audit also revealed some larger trends in sexual assault kits, specifically that the number of nurse sexual assault examiners in South Carolina is lacking.

The audit also noted that South Carolina does not require a specific time frame for any stage of sexual assault kit processing, meaning wait times for kit results in the Palmetto State are longer than most other states.

The Legislative Audit Council said it reached these conclusions after surveying system users, law enforcement, medical facilities, forensics labs and nurse examiners for sexual assault.

“South Carolina’s sexual assault statistics and Track-Kit data show that the current system for investigating sexual assault crimes is ineffective,” the summary report states. “Justice is delayed or denied for victims, many of whom are under 18.”

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