Company Website:
http://www.wv.gov
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- (Business Wire)
The West Virginia Division of Justice and Community Services recently
released a new online system that enables the tracking of sexual assault
kits from the time they are shipped to a healthcare facility to when
they are collected and returned for forensic testing. The system also
collects invaluable feedback on the quality of the collected kits that
will be used to identify potential areas of improvement and training
opportunities to ultimately improve evidence collection.
The resulting benefit to West Virginia’s criminal justice system is
significant: tracking where a kit is at all times will ensure that each
is tested and none is lost.
After surviving a sexual assault, a victim may seek medical care and
choose to have any evidence left on his or her clothes or body collected
by a healthcare professional. The collected evidence is placed in a kit,
which is one investigative tool that may help police and prosecutors
identify the offender and find connections to other pending cases.
In West Virginia, sexual assault evidence collection kits are
distributed by the West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory to
authorized healthcare providers around the state. Before the
implementation of the new system, distributed kits were recorded in a
spreadsheet, and there was no mechanism in place to record when a
facility used a kit and sent it on for forensic testing.
The new online Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit Information System
enables authorized crime lab users to manage kit information that tracks
what kits are sent to a facility and when. Once a facility collects a
kit, the facility updates the system to indicate the kit was collected
and that it was sent for forensic testing.
Additionally, the system provides the ability for crime lab users to
evaluate each piece of evidence collected in a kit after forensic
testing has been completed. The data collected will be used to provide
feedback directly to healthcare professionals in order to aid in
increasing the quality of the evidence collected. This in turn will
increase the arrest and conviction rates of offenders in West Virginia.
"We are very excited about the new online system and the new processes
we have in place that will lead the nation in eliminating untested and
lost sexual assault kits,” said Rick Staton, Director of the Division of
Justice and Community Services. “It is also part of our initiative to
improve the collection of kits and the data from our new system will do
just that. We won’t stop until the sexual assault kit backlog in West
Virginia is zero and we lead the nation in the quality of collected
kits."
The new online system was developed by the West Virginia Division of
Justice and Community Services and the West Virginia State Police
Forensic Laboratory in partnership with WV.gov. Guidance and
recommendations were also provided by the West Virginia Sexual Assault
Forensic Examination Commission, the West Virginia Foundation for Rape
Information and Services, and the West Virginia Hospital Association.
"The West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory is pleased to have
partnered with the West Virginia Division of Justice and Community
Services, the West Virginia Sexual Assault Forensic Examination
Commission, and the West Virginia Foundation for Rape Information and
Services to develop a system for improving sexual assault kit evidence
collection in West Virginia. The system is designed to better track
sexual assault kits and provide feedback on evidence collection to
healthcare professionals; ultimately improving the quality of sexual
assault evidence collection,” said Sheri Lemons, Acting Director of the
West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory. “The Forensic Laboratory
has recently implemented the system and we look forward to seeing the
improvements in the weeks and months ahead."
The Division of Justice and Community Services is part of the Department
of Military Affairs and Public Safety. For more information about the
West Virginia Division of Justice and Community Services, visit http://www.djcs.wv.gov.
About WV.gov
WV.gov is the official website of the state of West Virginia (http://www.wv.gov)
and is the result of an innovative public-private partnership between
the state and West Virginia Interactive. West Virginia Interactive works
with state and local government agencies to build and manage interactive
online services and is a subsidiary of digital government firm NIC
(NASDAQ: EGOV).
About NIC
Founded in 1992, NIC (NASDAQ: EGOV) is the nation's leading provider of
innovative digital government solutions and secure payment processing,
which help make government more accessible to everyone through
technology. The family of NIC companies provides digital government
solutions for more than 4,500 federal, state, and local agencies in the
United States. Forbes has named NIC as one of the “100 Best Small
Companies in America” six times and the company has been included four
times on the Barron’s 400 Index. Additional information is available at http://www.egov.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160920006420/en/
Contacts:
WV.gov
Ian McQuinn, 304-414-0265 x 106
ian@wvinteractive.com
Source: WV.gov
© 2024 Canjex Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.