Bea Hanson, Ph.D.
Director, New York State Office of Victim Services
After New York State enacted a law requiring sexual offense evidence collection kits not released to law enforcement custody to be maintained for 20 years from the date of collection, the state Office of Victim Services (OVS) was tasked with developing a statewide, secure facility to store these kits.
More than a year after the facility opened, the Joyful Heart Foundation notes that New York’s facility is the only centralized, statewide storage facility for unreported rape kits in the country. I am proud of OVS’s leadership on this issue, as it continues our state’s long history of protecting victims’ rights and working to ensure that all victims and survivors have access to support and services they need.
The storage facility is highly secure, climate controlled and designed to ensure the integrity of potential evidence: sexual offense evidence collection kits, drug facilitated sexual assault kits, and other items, such as clothing and bedding, collected at hospitals. The facility began accepting kits and other items in mid-January 2023, and as of July 29, 2024, there are 6,803 items stored securely.
Once an appropriate location was identified, OVS worked with another state agency, the Office of General Services, to convert an existing state-owned building into the storage facility, contracted with a vendor to create an electronic tracking and victim notification system (Kit Inventory and Tracking System, or KITS), and hired seven employees to oversee and staff the facility.
Prior to the 20-year storage requirement, state law mandated kits only be kept for a minimum of 30 days. Most hospitals and medical providers, however, stored them beyond that timeframe, so we sought their input as the project progressed. We needed to ensure a smooth, secure transfer of an estimated 10,000 “legacy” kits (that were being held at medical facilities) and other items, as well as kits and items collected after the facility became operational.
OVS worked closely with the Greater New York Hospital Association, and the Healthcare Association of New York State, to engage and educate providers about the project and their responsibilities. Providers need to make a concerted effort to contact survivors before items are transferred, and their staff must be trained on the electronic system for logging and tracking those items, and the victim notification portion of the system.
Survivor notification is important, as it allows individuals to decide whether to transfer their kit to the facility, notify law enforcement about the incident and move forward with the case, or request that their kit be disposed of. The option of secure storage for unreported kits provides individuals who have been sexually assaulted the ability to get medical care, consent to forensic evidence collection, and time to decide if they want to file a police report.
Unlike other states, New York directly reimburses medical providers for the cost of a forensic rape exam (FRE) if an individual does not have private health insurance or chooses not to use their private health care insurance for the examination. This measure is an exception to the OVS payer of last resort rule and provides for the personal privacy of victims. OVS also accepts FRE claims in lieu of police reports, which enables individuals to seek financial assistance and reimbursement from OVS in the form of victim compensation for other expenses related to the crime, without filing a police report.
To date, 146 medical facilities have access to the Kit Inventory and Tracking System (KITS), and of those 63 have sent items to the storage facility. The facility’s current capacity is 17,400 items and will increase to 26,600 items once renovation of a second storage wing is complete.
Another state agency, the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), is responsible for establishing a separate statewide electronic rape kit tracking system that will allow survivors to track their kits from the point they are released to law enforcement and sent to a crime lab for testing. DCJS anticipates the system will be operational sometime in 2025. Once the DCJS system is live, individuals who decide to release their kits stored at the secure facility to law enforcement will then use the statewide system to keep track of those kits.
OVS funds and supports approximately 250 victim assistance programs statewide that provide essential services, such as crisis counseling, support groups, case management, emergency shelter, civil legal help and relocation assistance, among other assistance, to victims and survivors of sexual assault and other crimes, and their families. Individuals may visit ovs.ny.gov/connect to find these programs, which provide services at no cost and regardless of whether an individual has reported the crime to police.
New York State’s Domestic and Sexual Violence Hotline also is available for confidential support and advocacy 24/7: 800-942-6906 (voice), 844-997-2121 (text) and opdv.ny.gov (chat).