Maryland unveiled a new tracking system for sexual assault evidence kits Thursday.
According to state officials, now a barcode will be on rape kits so victims can see exactly where the kit is located and whether it’s been tested. The move addresses the high volume of kits the state was harboring that were going untested.
Standing beside Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) and Attorney General Anthony Brown at the bill signing, Angela Wharton, who was raped at gunpoint in 1996 in Baltimore, commended the lawmakers‘ efforts to track the kits and recounted her own experience with an untracked rape kit.
“The very evidence that could have brought my assailant to justice had been callously discarded,” Wharton said. “At that moment, I was devastated, revictimized, and began to spiral into a deep depression.”
The new barcodes will make sure the kits aren’t being forgotten and that the process of collecting information from them is transparent.
“This kit is a promise of justice. However, for too many victims and survivors in too many communities, not only here in Maryland, but across the country, when kids left hospital rooms, victims were left with nothing but questions. Where’s my evidence kit? When does justice come?” Brown said.
“When people feel there is accountability, we have a better chance of getting evidence and a better chance of closing cases and a better chance of serving justice,” Moore said.
Brown explained that when a victim of sexual assault completes the SAFE exam, the person will be given a barcode number with a password. From there, survivors can track where the kit is in the system to see its progress “from the hospital to law enforcement to the lab for testing them, back to the appropriate agency.”
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The new program will also address the backlog of nearly 5,000 untested rape kits. The state expects the backlog to be taken care of by December 2025.
“Transparency and accountability are now within reach, offering a glimmer of hope to those of us who have long been denied a voice and a chance to see justice,” Wharton said.