LANSING — This week Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation encouraging faster and more organized sexual assault kit testing.

Senate Bill 998 creates the Sexual Assault Kit Tracking and Reporting Commission. The commission is responsible for developing guidelines to implement a statewide system to track location, lab status, and completed test results for rape evidence kits. 

“Too many victims have been waiting too long for justice they deserve. This legislation will help monitor the testing status of assault evidence kits,” Snyder said. “By ensuring faster testing and more organized record-keeping we can improve public safety and help put the minds of assault victims at ease.”

The bill builds on Public Act 227, signed earlier this summer to establish the time period in which sexual assault evidence kits must be processed. The bill came after a 2009 discovery of more than 11,000 evidence collection kits in a Detroit Police Department storage facility. To date, 10,000 of those kits have been sent for testing, including 8,000 currently being processed as a result of funding from a $4 million 2013 supplemental state appropriation.

“This bill sends a powerful message to sexual assault victims in Michigan that our state is committed to making justice for victims a priority,” said Debi Cain, executive director of the Michigan Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention and Treatment Board. “It also ensures that sexual assault kits will be given the attention they deserve and are treated as important evidence in cases moving forward.”