By Journalist Amaya Brooks (OBU)
Representative King(OU) is a seven star with an incredibly intriguing bill that will be hitting the House floor this afternoon. Her bill will be establishing standards for ensuring the safety and efficacy of rape kits for sexual assault survivors in the state of Oklahoma. “Any new rape kits that law enforcement receives, it sets timelines so that those kits get tested and that way the backlog doesn’t keep building.”
The bill establishes an emergency clause, deeming the inspection of these kits such a great asset and safety net for sexual assault survivors in the state of Oklahoma. It will go into effect January 1, 2024, after which, for a year, officers have 90 days to inspect any kit. On January 1, 2025, officers will have 60 days to inspect any kit. When asked who exactly will be affected by the law, Representative King states, this “applies to all law enforcement agencies who take the kits and they submit them to the OSBI. It directs the OSBI, who is the one in charge of the whole catalog that exists right now, on when to inspect and investigate them.”
Representative King got the idea of her bill from an actual bill that faced the Oklahoma legislature in 2018. The bill failed, but a non-profit organization called “End The Backlog” has continued to bring attention to the amount of untouched and uninvestigated rape kits that are being held by law enforcement agencies. “If I could just help survivors get some closure, I think that is what we are here as legislators to do, to help the people of the state and to help the people of the US.”