Information is power for survivors of sexual assault. Thanks to a new pilot program to electronically track rape kits, those accessing the services of the Athens-Clarke County Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners will be better informed about the status of their case.

Rape kits are essential if a survivor chooses to pursue a criminal investigation. SANE offers free forensic exams to survivors in 11 surrounding counties and tailors their exams to the needs of survivors, whether it’s taking DNA samples from a recent assault or identifying evidence of trauma to the survivors. past abuse. In collaboration with local law enforcement, SANE also helps survivors navigate criminal investigation and evidence processing routes.

Launched on September 14, the SANE pilot project is in partnership with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, the University of Georgia Police Department, the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office and The Cottage, a non-profit organization for victims of sexual assault and child abuse. The tracking process begins when a kit is registered on an online portal by the producing company. Accessible to SANE and its partners, as well as survivors themselves, the portal is updated as SANE nurses, law enforcement officials and others scan the code- bars of the kit as the evidence is processed.

“It gives a survivor the ability to see when their kit changes from our agency, when they go from law enforcement to the crime lab, and if the crime lab has tested it.” You can also show if it has been kept by an agency, to help them know exactly where it is at any point in the process, ”said SANE Executive Director Michelle Dickens. “The idea is to reduce the backlog and get the information back to the survivor so they can follow their evidence. “

Along with many other states, Georgia has suffered a large backlog of rape kits. In 2016, 3,500 kits were waiting to be tested when it was first addressed by legislation in March. The Sexual Assault Kit Tracking Initiative is the most recent effort by Georgian lawmakers to prevent a further build-up of unprocessed rape kits. Passed unanimously and promulgated by Governor Brian Kemp in May, Bill 255, or the Sexual Assault Reform Act of 2021, gave the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) the task of expanding the system through grants.

Dickens sits on the state’s expert panel on sexual assault. The committee worked closely with CJCC to design the follow-up program. Due to its involvement in legislation and its status as the sole provider of forensic examinations in the region, SANE was chosen as the collection site, but all partners offer crucial assistance.

“This project is not us in a vacuum. Our partners we work with have all been selected to be part of this pilot project, ”says Dickens. “These agencies also play an important role in this project. Because The Cottage provides some of these advocacy services, they help survivors and help them be able to follow up if they have any issues with the system.

The SANE pilot should run until November. The goal, according to Dickens, is to have all required agencies registered and electronically track sexual assault kits by June 2022, because as the program expands across Georgia, more and more Survivors will receive empowering updates on the whereabouts of their evidence.

SANE nurses received training on how to change the status of a kit and generate a PIN code for a survivor’s accessibility. However, the pilot does not change the day-to-day work nurses already do – it adds an additional procedure and gives survivors more autonomy.

“It gives us a little more information than we can give to the survivor. It also helps us know what happens to the evidence after the test, ”says Dickens. “There is a small additional administrative step, but that does not change anything that we have already done regarding the collection of evidence, the transfer of evidence to law enforcement and our partners in charge of law enforcement to get into the criminal lab, but it does give the survivor some visibility, and it certainly comes down to our mission to serve survivors in our community.

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