TAKE ACTION! SB 1411 (Third Consideration in the House): CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES and tell them they must look at both tracking and timely resolution of our current backlog as this bill is considered. Click here to find your representative.
Synopsis: Illinois State Police to establish a sexual assault evidence tracking system that conforms to the recommendations made by the Sexual Assault Evidence Tracking and Reporting Commission.
As advocates at Resilience, an advocacy center serving thousands of sexual assault survivors in Chicago annually, we too often see survivors wait well over a year for the complete analysis of their evidence collection kits with no access to its whereabouts.
While we support the creation of system to track this evidence, the implementation of a tracking system will not address the issue of significant delays in turnaround time for results. We strongly encourage the Legislature to equally appropriate funds to Illinois State Police to not only implement the tracking system but to hire additional technicians to promptly test and analyze kits. Most importantly, money is needed to immediately address the current backlog of kits from the past two years waiting to be tested by outsourcing them. Funding for additional technicians alone will not address the current backlog.
Survivors of sexual assault and abuse deserve quick resolutions to investigations and legal proceedings so they can focus on their healing. Please ensure that both tracking and timely resolution of our current backlog is addressed as this bill is considered.
For more information about this and other policy positions, contact Sarah Layden, Director of Programs and Public Policy, at slayden@ourresilience.org.