NORTH CAROLINA – A new law in North Carolina provides $6 million to outsource untested sexual assault kits. In the state, there are currently around 15,000 backlogged kits.

Police officers must forward rape kits to labs to be tested within 45 days. In addition, every survivor gets a bar code to access their kit to better track evidence.

Of the backlogged kits, 900 have been tested with a 20% hit rate on evidence.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, says, “We need to send a clear message to survivors that the state of North Carolina cares about what happened to you. A clear message to rapists that no matter how long ago you committed your crime, we are coming for you. And to the public, we will do everything in our power to keep you safe.”

This law passed both in the House and the Senate, unanimously. The money was originally in the vetoed state budget but was moved to a separate bill and was voted on as a separate item.