Maine will soon begin tracking sexual assault forensic examination kits statewide, after the governor recently agreed to allocate $267,000 annually for a program that lawmakers approved last year.

Advocates say they have worked hard to ensure victims of sexual assault in Maine have some control over what happens with their cases — they choose whether to complete an exam, and what forensic evidence they provide. They can also decide whether to immediately send their kit to investigators, or place it in storage, giving them up to 20 years to decide what they want to do with it.

But once they’ve made that choice, advocates say, victims have been left in the dark about what became of their kits and many have had to pursue that information from police.

“Sitting around, waiting by the phone … it is not trauma informed, it is not very thoughtful,” said Carlie Fischer, systems advocacy coordinator for the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MECASA). “It’s sort of reflective of the fact that the criminal justice system is not always as victim friendly as it should be.”

A statewide tracking system will make it possible to follow the whereabouts of kits online, much like an Amazon package or DoorDash delivery. Law enforcement agencies, hospitals and prosecutors will also be responsible for reporting their actions, including whether they decide to send kits for testing.

Kits allow for all kinds of evidence to be collected, including hair, clothing, debris, potential DNA evidence and anything else that might be related to an assault. There’s no state law requiring that every kit be tested. There is a law requiring that law enforcement agencies inform prosecutors of whatever evidence they have — including completed kits — within 60 days of receiving a complaint from someone reporting that they were sexually assaulted.

Victims’ rights advocates say a statewide tracking system will help reveal whether that law is being followed.

The Maine State Police Crime Laboratory will oversee the new tracking system. By 2028, the crime lab has to start reporting annually how many completed kits there are, how many have been referred to law enforcement or placed in storage, and whether they have been tested. The lab will also have to report the average length of time it takes for kits to be tested, and how many have been waiting longer than a year to be analyzed.

“This is a phenomenal first step,” said Shaun Johnson, clinical director at the University of New England’s forensic nurse program. “There’s a long path that still needs to happen, though.”

STARTED WITH A PILOT PROGRAM

A spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety, which oversees the crime lab, said Wednesday that the agency was unable to comment at this time on efforts to launch the new tracking system.

The bill doesn’t take effect until 90 days after the Legislature has adjourned.

“The Maine State Police is encouraged by the recent legislation and the resources it provides,” Shannon Moss, a spokesperson for the department, wrote in an email.

MECASA has been running a grant-funded pilot tracking program since 2024 in Kennebec and Penobscot counties. The coalition is working with the state crime lab now to expand the program statewide. Fischer said she’s expecting a “pretty clean transition.” MECASA has already developed a tracking website that can be expanded to all of Maine’s counties, and training materials for law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and medical staff who will upload information to the tracker.

“As soon as the money lands for DPS, and as soon as we have the staff in place, we’re going to hit the ground running on this project,” she said.

Data collected by MECASA from the pilot also offered an early look at the kind of information Maine can expect from a statewide program. Of 106 kits completed since November 2024, roughly 70% were sent to police and the rest went into storage at victims’ requests, according to MECASA. Of those sent to police, about 47% were tested. Another approximately 10% of the kits were waiting to be tested.

Fischer said statewide data will help identify cracks in the system, such as whether kits are being immediately picked up by police from hospitals, and if any have been sitting for longer than 60 days at a police department, without any indication of whether police have spoken with prosecutors about the evidence.

“It’s not designed to be like a ‘gotcha,’ system, but it does help us ensure that we’re not having things slip through the cracks, and that if intervention is needed or a response is needed, that we have the ability to do that in a clear and targeted way,” Fischer said.

QUESTIONS ABOUT FUNDING

Even with a tracking program already in effect in two Maine counties, victims’ rights advocates say they question whether the $267,000 in annual funding allocated by Gov. Janet Mills will be enough.

The new tracking system requires the crime lab and law enforcement agencies to inventory every completed kit in the state, including kits held by police departments, sheriff’s offices and hospitals.

Polly Campbell was the director of the state’s Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner program for 16 years, training and supporting forensic nurses around the state who treat patients who have experienced sexual assault, and help complete kits. She now leads UNE’s program for forensic nurses, and said she had spent more than a decade pushing for a statewide tracking system.

“There were a number of forensic nurses across the state that played a key role in this,” she said.

While the funding is a success, Campbell said she still has questions about the technical aspects. For kits that have been completed, but never tested or acted upon, she asked who will be responsible for notifying victims and how the crime lab will handle a likely influx of kits that need to be tested.

“Because, to be perfectly honest, those aren’t boxes,” said Johnson, from UNE, “that’s a human being.”

The governor’s budget doesn’t address additional funding for the state’s Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory, which is run separately from the crime lab and analyzes blood and urine samples that can also be provided in sexual assault examinations.

In testimony to the Legislature last year, Lt. Mike Zabarsky, who oversees the state’s crime lab, cited anecdotal evidence of “hundreds of kits in law enforcement custody throughout the state.”

The more kits the lab learns about, the more likely it is that they’ll be asked to test more. Stacked against the lab’s limited resources and competing priorities, including tests for other types of crime in the state, Zabarsky warned it would take longer for the lab to analyze kits, and there will be a backlog.