AG Kaul Praises Passage of Sexual Assault Kit Legislation in Senate, Calls for Assembly Action

Oct 8 2019

MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul today praised the unanimous passage of Senate Bill 200 on the Senate floor.

 

“I applaud the members of the state senate for recognizing the importance of preventing another backlog of untested sexual assault kits,” said Attorney General Kaul. “The next step is for the Assembly Committee on Health to hold a hearing. I ask the members of that committee to take this legislation up without delay.”

 

About SB200

Under current law there is no clear statutory procedure for the collection and processing of sexual assault kits. This lack of a standard process has resulted in thousands of kits not being submitted to the state crime laboratory for testing until recent state and national efforts. The proposed legislation creates procedures that will prevent a backlog in the future.

 

Under the bill, when a health care professional collects sexual assault evidence, a victim will have the choice to report to law enforcement or not. If the victim chooses not to report to law enforcement, the health care professional will send the kit to the state crime laboratories for storage within 72 hours. The crime lab will then store the kit for up to 10 years, or until the victim decides to report to law enforcement. This feature of the bill provides the sexual assault survivor with options in the event they change their mind about reporting.

 

If a victim does choose to report to law enforcement, under the proposed legislation the health care professional will notify law enforcement within 24 hours after collecting the sexual assault kit. The law enforcement agency then has 72 hours to collect the kit from the health care professional, and then 14 days to send the kit to the state crime laboratories for analysis.

 

The bill would also enable the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) to collect valuable information on sexual assault kits to better inform future evidence-based analysis and policy making.