A police line around a crime scene.
Governor Katie Hobbs signed a bill this week that mandates all police departments in the state use a tracking system for forensic medical exams, also known as rape kits.
Advocates said the tracking system, codified by HB 2581, is another layer of accountability for law enforcement, as well as an important tool for sex crime victims.
“Information and knowledge about what's happening has been proven to be incredibly healing and helps folks recover from the effects of that crime, and reduce trauma,” said Jenna Panas, CEO of the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence.
The platform called Track-Kit is used in 34 states, according to a press release from the Joyful Heart Foundation, a sexual assault advocacy group.
The victim portal on the platform also puts information in the hands of victims, said Panas.
“They're not receiving unwanted texts on their phones that take them back to that crime. They're seeing that information only when they are ready to receive it,” Panas said.
Rape kits are handled by many different jurisdictions and are often stored at a variety of different places until they are fully processed, Panas said. And, they often contain private items and data.
“It’s to provide a survivor the ability to, at any time, three o'clock in the morning, when she can't sleep, to be able to log in and see where it is and understand the status, just to get that sense of control,” she said.
The new law primarily affects Phoenix Police Department, which opted out of a tracking system in 2016.
In a press release April 29, Phoenix Police Department said the Track-Kit system is expected to be available later this year.
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