Sexual Assault kits receive barcode tracking to increase accountability

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Sexual assault kits in our state are getting barcodes that will allow victims and law enforcement to track the stages of testing.
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​Leading to accountability for law enforcement and testing sites.
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​"This tracking system means they can hold law enforcement accountable for effectively and efficiently holding law enforcement accountable," said ​Governor Wes Moore.
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​It's something advocates have been fighting for for years.
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​Advocates like Angela Wharton.
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​"In 1996, I was raped at gunpoint in the woods in Northeast Baltimore," said Wharton at the press event for the new tracking system.
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Wharton went through the testing.
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​She did what police and prosecutors would tell people hoping to get their attacker arrested.
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​"I summoned every ounce of courage within me to undergo an invasive and humiliating process called the safe examination," said Wharton.
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​For 20 years, she hoped her attacker would be found and brought to justice.
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​"The devastating news reached me, all of the evidence including my untested rape kit had been destroyed by the local police department," said Wharton.
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​Now, survivors like Wharton will be able to know exactly where their kit is in the testing process.
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​Even able to put pressure on law enforcement for not getting the testing done.
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​"So if a survivor logs in and sees that it's been sitting in an evidence locker they can contact that agency and say what's going on with my case I can see that it's been sitting in the locker since x date," said a member of the Attorney General's office.
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​Survivors of sexual assault will receive the tracking details when their exam is finished.