By james art 
COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) – The South Carolina General Assembly’s Legislative Audit Board conducted an audit of the South Carolina Department of Law Enforcement’s sexual assault kit tracking system and found that improvements need to be made.
SLED’s tracking system, which is called Track-Kit, allows survivors of sexual assault to track kits sent to the department from distribution, to collection, to processing, to storage. It also allows them to see the location and status of their kits.
LAC officials said SLED implemented the tracking system late after launching Track-Kit on Feb. 20, 2024, nearly 21 months after the June 1, 2022, deadline required by state law. They also said SLED did not communicate adequately with other agencies and held only two task force meetings regarding the system.
Lawmakers also pointed out that SLED’s Track-Kit database was incomplete with only 763 kits in the system as of July 1, 2024, and 1,987 kits awaiting testing at SLED’s lab as of October 2023.
The audit also revealed some larger trends in sexual assault kits, specifically that the number of nurses experiencing sexual assault is lacking in South Carolina.
The audit also noted that South Carolina does not require a specific time frame for any stage of sexual assault kit processing, meaning the wait time for kit results in the Palmetto State is longer than most other states.
The Legislative Audit Council said it reached these conclusions after researching the system’s users, law enforcement agencies, medical facilities, forensic labs and sex-abuse doctors.
“South Carolina’s sexual assault statistics and Track-Kit data demonstrate that the current system for investigating sexual assault crimes is ineffective,” the summary report said. “Justice is delayed or denied for victims, many of whom are under the age of 18.”
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