SB 71

Under current law, there is no statutory procedure for the collection and

processing of sexual assault kits. This bill creates procedures for transmission,

processing, and storage of sexual assault kits. Under the bill, a health care

professional who collects a sexual assault kit must do one of the following: 1) if the

victim wants to report the sexual assault to law enforcement, the health care

professional must notify a law enforcement agency within 24 hours of collecting the

kit; or 2) if the victim does not want to report the sexual assault to law enforcement,

the health care professional must send the kit to the state crime laboratories within

72 hours for storage. Under the bill, if a law enforcement agency has received

notification from a health care professional that a kit has been collected, the law

enforcement agency must take possession of the kit within 72 hours, and must send

the kit to the state crime laboratories for processing within 14 days. If the victim

changes his or her mind about wanting to have his or her kit analyzed after it is given

to a law enforcement agency but before the agency sends the kit to the state crime

laboratories for processing, the agency must send the kit to the state crime

laboratories for storage rather than for processing.

Under the bill, once the state crime laboratories takes possession of a sexual

assault kit, it must do one of the following: 1) if it has received the kit of a person who

has not consented to analysis, securely store the kit for a period of 10 years; or 2) if

it has received the kit of a person who has consented to analysis, process the kit and

then send it to a law enforcement agency to store the kit for a period of 50 years, or

until the date of the expiration of the statute of limitations, or until the end of a term

of imprisonment or probation of a person convicted in the sexual assault case,

whichever is longer.

Under current law, local law enforcement agencies report certain crime

statistics to the Department of Justice. The bill requires law enforcement agencies

to provide additional data to DOJ regarding sexual assault kits collected and

processed in Wisconsin in addition to the data currently being reported. The bill also

requires DOJ to publish data on law enforcement agency compliance with DOJ

reporting requirements.