CALHOUN COUNTY, Mich. — Victims of sexual assault will no longer have to wait to get answers about their cases. Thanks to new web-based system called Track-Kit they can now keep a close eye on the status of their individual rape kits.
“Bottom line the concern for the wellbeing and the safety of the victim is the reason why were’ tracking it to begin with,” said Calhoun County Sheriff Matt Saxton. “I don’t think we’ve had that issue here in Calhoun County with agencies.”
Sheriff Saxton said law enforcement agencies in the county have been tracking rape kits for years. Whenever a victim reports an assault, the rape kit is performed at the hospital and then moves to the agency and then on to the crime lab, he said. Officials, from nurses to investigators, make notes along the way. Now, with the new system being online, victims can view those notes.
“It really allows the victim some feedback as to where that sexual assault evidence kit is,” said Sheriff Saxton during an interview at the Marshall Regional Law Enforcement Center. “Once we get it they can sign up for notifications, whether a text message or email, to when the assault kit moves on to the next location.”
If the victim doesn’t want to be notified, to prevent from reliving the trauma, they can have a trusted friend or close relative receive the updates he said.
“At the end of the day we want to make sure the victims are are participating in the level they want to,” Sheriff Saxton said. “I mean it is up to them whether they get any notifications.”
He said Calhoun County was picked by the state to pilot the program because all the agencies work with the same prosecutor Dave Gilbert, making the kits easier to track. Calhoun was also selected because an inspector with the Battle Creek Police Department was apart of the original team who created the system after a report emerged in 2014 that thousands of rape kits went untested in the state. Three hundred of them were in Calhoun County.
“For the most part the agencies have kept up on their sexual assault test kits,” Sheriff Saxton said. “Some of them weren’t tested. Twenty years ago we didn’t test all of them. If we didn’t have a suspect, or different reasons, they weren’t tested. But we held onto those.”
Since 2015, all three hundred kits have been tested he said. And a handful have led to convictions or charges filed, which is the goal.
“I think what we have here and what is in place now, moving forward, is good for all victims and survivors really of sexual assault cases,” said Sheriff Saxton.
