Wrangell Sentinel -

A new online tool will allow survivors to check the status of their sexual assault kits, Alaska’s Department of Public Safety announced last month. The department developed a tracker so survivors can stay up to date on their case in “the least intrusive and traumatic way possible.”

A sexual assault kit, known as a “rape kit,” contains materials a medical professional can use to collect DNA samples or other evidence after a crime. A rape kit can be a tool to convict perpetrators of sexual violence if survivors choose to report their assault.

Advocates like Jennifer Brown of Standing Together Against Rape Alaska say this is a step in the right direction. The online tool is part of a response to the backlog of thousands of unprocessed rape kits that the state finished working through this year.

“Already, when you are a victim of sexual assault, it feels like you’re voiceless,” Brown said. “This sort of puts back that voice and that power for victims of sexual assault where they can look and see that, yes, progress is happening with their sexual assault kits.”

In Alaska, a series of state and partner agencies are responsible for processing the kits and there are deadlines for how quickly they must act. The online tool promotes accountability, Brown said.

She said before the tool, survivors had to contact the detective working their case to get an update on their kit.

“It sometimes can be very difficult to reach law enforcement and now they can look online without having to leave messages and wonder if anybody cares,” Brown said.

Now, she said, it’s like tracking a package delivery. Survivors are given instructions on how to track their kit when the evidence is collected.

The state’s Public Safety Department began introducing the program regionally in June and now it is fully operational statewide. Since June, the program has logged 48 kits in the tracking system and 33 survivors have accessed the online portal to check the status of their kits.

“After the state of Alaska completed the processing of our untested sexual assault kits from across the state, one of the recommendations from the working group was to enable this trauma informed tracking system for survivors,” said Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell in a news release.

His agency worked with nurses who are members of teams that respond to sexual assaults, the Alaska Scientific Crime Detection Lab, law enforcement across the state, prosecutors and survivors to develop the tracker.

The Alaska Beacon is an independent, donor-funded news organization. Alaskabeacon.com.