AREA — New Jersey is one of only 10 states that do not operate a rape kit tracking system. Assemblywoman Michele Matsikoudis wants to change that.
Her bill (S715/A908), released from the Assembly Public Safety Committee Monday, requires the attorney general to create a sexual assault forensic evidence kit tracking system, called SAFE. Victims, law enforcement and health care workers will be able to track a rape kit from its creation to final results.
“So many women who survive a sexual assault tragically refuse to come forward because they fear they won’t be believed,” Matsikoudis (RUnion) said. “New Jersey needs to send the clear message that the bravery of those who do report their assault does not occur in vain. These women need to know that they are not forgotten.Allowing survivors to track their kit empowers them and provides critical transparency during the investigative process.”
Women’s advocacy groups have raised concerns that rape kits languish in a backlogged laboratory queue or never make it to the lab, sitting in police evidence rooms indefinitely. End the Backlog, a program of the Joyful Heart Foundation that works with sexual assault and domestic violence survivors and pushes for rape kit tracking, filed FOIA requests in 2014 and 2015 with three New Jersey cities — Trenton, Atlantic City and Camden — for untested rape kit information. Those requests were denied or incomplete. The federal government defines a kit backlogged if not tested within 30 days of creation.
The New Jersey attorney general’s office claims there is no backlog. However, a 2019 state auditor’s report found 2,834 kits had never been submitted for testing. A News12 investigation released in February 2024 found 74 percent of all rape kits meet the federal definition of “backlogged,” a definition the state attorney general’s office rejects.
“These women have endured the most brutal of physical violations, and in hopes of getting justice, subject themselves to privacy-shattering, invasive procedures to collect evidence. New Jersey has an obligation to not let them down,” Asw. Matsikoudis said. “They should not be made victims twice over because the state fails to process and track this evidence in a timely manner, if at all.”
