NJ legislation would create a registry for rape kits, enable chain-of-custody tracking

A bill that would create a rape kit tracking system in New Jersey unanimously passed the state Senate on Monday afternoon.

The measure, sponsored by state Sens. Renee Burgess and Paul Moriarty, would require the state’s attorney general to establish a sexual assault forensic evidence kit, or rape kit, tracking system.

Burgess said after the vote that the bill “enhances the current system, bringing justice to those that have been waiting so long because of an antiquated system,” and that it can “do nothing but help victims.”

The system would create an online database that would allow a person, including a victim, a law enforcement officer, an employee of a health care facility or laboratory, and anyone else deemed appropriate by the attorney general, to track a sexual assault forensic evidence kit through the chain of custody from the time of collection through the transfer to a local law enforcement agency, submission to a laboratory and final disposition.

According to state data from 2022, the most recent available, there were 1,536 reported rapes and 251 arrests.

Other legislation regarding rape kits has also been introduced in Trenton

A companion bill in the Assembly is still in committee.

This is not the only legislation introduced during this session to address rape kits. A bill sponsored by state Sens. Joseph Cryan and Troy Singleton would be geared toward addressing the backlog of kits to be tested.

That bill — which cleared the state Senate Law and Public Safety Committee and now awaits consideration in the Senate Budget Committee — calls for all test kits to be sent for examination, if the victim consents. It also backdates for kits collected from July 1, 2019, to the present to be sent for testing by April 1, 2025, to eliminate the backlog of kits, and for any other kits to be submitted from the Division of Criminal Justice.

It would require testing facilities to alert law enforcement about every sexual assault forensic evidence kit collected from a victim within 24 hours, if the victim consents, and would require the law enforcement agency to take possession of the kit within three business days.

Kits from victims who haven’t reported the crime or consented to the release of the evidence would be held for 20 years, or in the case of a minor 20 years after the victim turns 18.

This comes after Attorney General Matt Platkin issued a new mandate in August requiring all kits submitted to law enforcement to be tested.

“We’ve raised our own standard for taking a survivor-centered approach to justice, and victims will benefit,” Platkin said in a statement at the time. “This critical update, along with a proposed rule change that would make admissible at trial evidence of a defendant’s commission of prior domestic violence, child abuse, or sexual assault, will increase the likelihood of successfully prosecuting serial offenders and diminish the serious public safety threat they present.”

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