Sacramento, Calif. — Two proposed California bills have moved forward in committee to help end the backlog of rape kits in the state.
"Today is a great day for survivors of sexual assault in California," said Ilse Knecht, the director of policy and advocacy for the Joyful Heart Foundation.
She says the step forward is a success for organizations fighting for survivors as well as survivors themselves.
"Thousands, tens of thousands of Californians wrote letters, they made calls, they tweeted to say that now is the time for rape kit reform in California," she said.
That reform comes in the form of two proposed bills which just passed committee Friday.
SB 1449 would change the current law that says local law enforcement and labs "should" process all rape kits to say they "shall" process the kits. The law would require agencies to process them within 20 days.
The bill would also require labs to submit the DNA profiles to CODIS, the criminal DNA database.
According to endthebacklog.org, more than 13,000 rape kits in California are waiting to be processed.
"That's obviously very important to insuring that we find a path to healing and justice for survivors and take dangerous offenders off the streets," Knecht said.
The other bill, AB3118 would require all agencies to count and complete an audit of all the rape kits in their possession. The law requires the agencies to complete and submit the count by July 1, 2019.
Having an accurate count of untested rape kits would give agencies the scope of the problem.
According to the Sacramento county DA's office, county agencies receive between 250 to 350 rape kits a year.
The DA's office says they are current with all rape kits dating back to 2013.
Knecht says the situation in other counties may look different and both these bills will bring transparency and will help survivors find justice.
"To know that survivors go through so much to have this evidence collected from their body which really is a crime scene and then that evidence is put in a box on a shelf and nothing is done with it, I was mortified," Knecht said.
Those bills now move to the senate and assembly to vote before the bills are passed.