Sexual assault victim survivors in Minnesota now have better access to information about their case, thanks to a new sexual assault kit tracking program. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension completed the deployment of the Track-Kit system this week. Track-Kit provides victim survivors with 24/7, online access to information about the status of their sexual assault kit.
The goal of the Track-Kit system is to increase accountability and transparency for what can be a lengthy process.
“The BCA stands with Minnesota’s victim survivors. We hope the Track-Kit system relieves uncertainty and gives comfort with the knowledge of exactly where their kit stands in the testing process,” said BCA Superintendent Drew Evans.
Track-Kit uses a barcode system to update information about a kit’s status and location in real time. The medical facility that collects the kit creates the record by scanning the kit’s barcode into the system. Law enforcement updates the status when the kit is sent for testing to an accredited forensic laboratory in the state. The forensics lab updates the status again when it receives the kit and when testing is complete. At any time, a victim survivor can use their unique login and password to see the status of their kit.
The new Track-Kit system applies to both restricted kits (those where the victim survivor does not consent to testing) and unrestricted kits (those the victim survivor agrees to have tested). All restricted kits are stored at the BCA. If a victim survivor with a restricted kit decides to change its listing to unrestricted, their kit’s status will reflect that change.
The BCA deployed Track-Kit across the state region by region over a three-month period. “We want to thank the hundreds of medical facilities, law enforcement agencies, forensic laboratories, and county attorney offices who did their part to ensure the Track-Kit roll out went smoothly,” said Evans. “This is an important day for victim survivors in our state.” Only kits collected after Track-Kit went live in each region will be entered into the new system. Kits collected prior will not.
MN Stat. 299C.106 mandated victim survivors have access to information about the sexual assault kit related to their incident. Track-Kit is an off-the-shelf cloud solution from Invita Health. Funding for the project came from the Department of Justice (DOJ) through the Office of Justice Programs (OJP).
Republished courtesy of Minn. Department of Public Safety.