725 ILCS 202/ Sexual Assault Evidence Submission Act.

(725 ILCS 202/1)

Sec. 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Sexual Assault Evidence Submission Act.

(Source: P.A. 96-1011, eff. 9-1-10.)

(725 ILCS 202/5)

Sec. 5. Definitions. In this Act:

"Commission" means the Sexual Assault Evidence Tracking and Reporting Commission.

"Law enforcement agencies" means local, county, State or federal law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation of sexual assault cases in Illinois.

"Sexual assault evidence" means evidence collected in connection with a sexual assault investigation, including, but not limited to, evidence collected using the Illinois State Police Evidence Collection Kits.

(Source: P.A. 102-538, eff. 8-20-21.)

(725 ILCS 202/10)

Sec. 10. Submission of evidence. Law enforcement agencies that receive sexual assault evidence that the victim of a sexual assault or sexual abuse or a person authorized under Section 6.5 of the Sexual Assault Survivors Emergency Treatment Act has consented to allow law enforcement to test in connection with the investigation of a criminal case on or after the effective date of this Act must submit evidence from the case within 10 business days of receipt of the consent to test to an Illinois State Police forensic laboratory or a laboratory approved and designated by the Director of the Illinois State Police. The written report required under Section 20 of the Sexual Assault Incident Procedure Act shall include the date and time the sexual assault evidence was picked up from the hospital, the date consent to test the sexual assault evidence was given, and the date and time the sexual assault evidence was sent to the laboratory. Sexual assault evidence received by a law enforcement agency within 30 days prior to the effective date of this Act shall be submitted pursuant to this Section.

(Source: P.A. 102-538, eff. 8-20-21.)

(725 ILCS 202/15)

Sec. 15. Analysis of evidence; notification.

(a) All sexual assault evidence submitted pursuant to Section 10 of this Act on or after the effective date of this Act shall be analyzed within 6 months after receipt of all necessary evidence and standards by the Illinois State Police Laboratory or other designated laboratory if sufficient staffing and resources are available.

(b) If a consistent DNA profile has been identified by comparing the submitted sexual assault evidence with a known standard from a suspect or with DNA profiles in the CODIS database, the Illinois State Police shall notify the investigating law enforcement agency of the results in writing, and the Illinois State Police shall provide an automatic courtesy copy of the written notification to the appropriate State's Attorney's Office for tracking and further action, as necessary.

(Source: P.A. 102-538, eff. 8-20-21.)

(725 ILCS 202/20)

Sec. 20. Inventory of evidence.

(a) By October 15, 2010, each Illinois law enforcement agency shall provide written notice to the Illinois State Police, in a form and manner prescribed by the Illinois State Police, stating the number of sexual assault cases in the custody of the law enforcement agency that have not been previously submitted to a laboratory for analysis. Within 180 days after the effective date of this Act, appropriate arrangements shall be made between the law enforcement agency and the Illinois State Police, or a laboratory approved and designated by the Director of the Illinois State Police, to ensure that all cases that were collected prior to the effective date of this Act and are, or were at the time of collection, the subject of a criminal investigation, are submitted to the Illinois State Police, or a laboratory approved and designated by the Director of the Illinois State Police.

(b) By February 15, 2011, the Illinois State Police shall submit to the Governor, the Attorney General, and both houses of the General Assembly a plan for analyzing cases submitted pursuant to this Section. The plan shall include but not be limited to a timeline for completion of analysis and a summary of the inventory received, as well as requests for funding and resources necessary to meet the established timeline. Should the Illinois State Police determine it is necessary to outsource the forensic testing of the cases submitted in accordance with this Section, all such cases will be exempt from the provisions of subsection (n) of Section 5-4-3 of the Unified Code of Corrections.

(c) Beginning June 1, 2016 or on and after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 99th General Assembly, whichever is later, each law enforcement agency must conduct an annual inventory of all sexual assault cases in the custody of the law enforcement agency and provide written notice of its annual findings to the State's Attorney's Office having jurisdiction to ensure sexual assault cases are being submitted as provided by law.

(Source: P.A. 102-538, eff. 8-20-21.)

(725 ILCS 202/25)

Sec. 25. Failure of a law enforcement agency to submit the sexual assault evidence. The failure of a law enforcement agency to submit the sexual assault evidence collected on or after the effective date of this Act within 10 business days after receipt shall in no way alter the authority of the law enforcement agency to submit the evidence or the authority of the Illinois State Police forensic laboratory or designated laboratory to accept and analyze the evidence or specimen or to maintain or upload the results of genetic marker grouping analysis information into a local, State, or national database in accordance with established protocol.

(Source: P.A. 102-538, eff. 8-20-21.)

(725 ILCS 202/30)

Sec. 30. Required certification. Each submission of sexual assault evidence submitted for analysis pursuant to this Act shall be accompanied by the following signed certification:

"This evidence is being submitted by (name of investigating law enforcement agency) in connection with a prior or current criminal investigation."

(Source: P.A. 96-1011, eff. 9-1-10.)

(725 ILCS 202/35)

Sec. 35. Expungement. If the Illinois State Police receives written confirmation from the investigating law enforcement agency or State's Attorney's office that a DNA record that has been uploaded pursuant to this Act into a local, State or national DNA database was not connected to a criminal investigation, the DNA record shall be expunged from the DNA database and the Illinois State Police shall, by rule, prescribe procedures to ensure that written confirmation is sent to the submitting law enforcement agency verifying the expungement.

(Source: P.A. 102-538, eff. 8-20-21.)

(725 ILCS 202/40)

Sec. 40. Failure to expunge. The failure to expunge a DNA record or strictly comply with the provisions of Section 35 of this Act shall not be grounds for challenging the validity of a database match or database information, and evidence based upon or derived from the DNA record may not be excluded by a court.

(Source: P.A. 96-1011, eff. 9-1-10.)

(725 ILCS 202/42)

Sec. 42. Reporting. Beginning January 1, 2017 and each year thereafter, the Illinois State Police shall publish a quarterly report on its website, indicating a breakdown of the number of sexual assault case submissions from every law enforcement agency.

(Source: P.A. 102-538, eff. 8-20-21.)

(725 ILCS 202/43)

Sec. 43. (Repealed).

(Source: P.A. 100-336, eff. 8-25-17. Repealed internally, eff. 1-1-19.)

(725 ILCS 202/45)

Sec. 45. Rules. The Illinois State Police shall promulgate rules that prescribe the procedures for the operation of this Act, including expunging a DNA record.

(Source: P.A. 102-538, eff. 8-20-21.)

(725 ILCS 202/50)

Sec. 50. Sexual assault evidence tracking system.

(a) On June 26, 2018, the Sexual Assault Evidence Tracking and Reporting Commission issued its report as required under Section 43. It is the intention of the General Assembly in enacting the provisions of this amendatory Act of the 101st General Assembly to implement the recommendations of the Sexual Assault Evidence Tracking and Reporting Commission set forth in that report in a manner that utilizes the current resources of law enforcement agencies whenever possible and that is adaptable to changing technologies and circumstances.

(a-1) Due to the complex nature of a statewide tracking system for sexual assault evidence and to ensure all stakeholders, including, but not limited to, victims and their designees, health care facilities, law enforcement agencies, forensic labs, and State's Attorneys offices are integrated, the Commission recommended the purchase of an electronic off-the-shelf tracking system. The system must be able to communicate with all stakeholders and provide real-time information to a victim or his or her designee on the status of the evidence that was collected. The sexual assault evidence tracking system must:

(1) be electronic and web-based;

(2) be administered by the Illinois State Police;

(3) have help desk availability at all times;

(4) ensure the law enforcement agency contact information is accessible to the victim or his or her designee through the tracking system, so there is contact information for questions;

(5) have the option for external connectivity to evidence management systems, laboratory information management systems, or other electronic data systems already in existence by any of the stakeholders to minimize additional burdens or tasks on stakeholders;

(6) allow for the victim to opt in for automatic notifications when status updates are entered in the system, if the system allows;

(7) include at each step in the process, a brief explanation of the general purpose of that step and a general indication of how long the step may take to complete;

(8) contain minimum fields for tracking and reporting, as follows:

(A) for sexual assault evidence kit vendor fields:

(i) each sexual evidence kit identification number provided to each health care facility; and

(ii) the date the sexual evidence kit was sent to the health care facility.

(B) for health care facility fields:

(i) the date sexual assault evidence was collected; and

(ii) the date notification was made to the law enforcement agency that the sexual assault evidence was collected.

(C) for law enforcement agency fields:

(i) the date the law enforcement agency took possession of the sexual assault evidence from the health care facility, another law enforcement agency, or victim if he or she did not go through a health care facility;

(ii) the law enforcement agency complaint number;

(iii) if the law enforcement agency that takes possession of the sexual assault evidence from a health care facility is not the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction in which the offense occurred, the date when the law enforcement agency notified the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction that the agency has sexual assault evidence required under subsection (c) of Section 20 of the Sexual Assault Incident Procedure Act;

(iv) an indication if the victim consented for analysis of the sexual assault evidence;

(v) if the victim did not consent for analysis of the sexual assault evidence, the date on which the law enforcement agency is no longer required to store the sexual assault evidence;

(vi) a mechanism for the law enforcement agency to document why the sexual assault evidence was not submitted to the laboratory for analysis, if applicable;

(vii) the date the law enforcement agency received the sexual assault evidence results back from the laboratory;

(viii) the date statutory notifications were made to the victim or documentation of why notification was not made; and

(ix) the date the law enforcement agency turned over the case information to the State's Attorney office, if applicable.

(D) for forensic lab fields:

(i) the date the sexual assault evidence is received from the law enforcement agency by the forensic lab for analysis;

(ii) the laboratory case number, visible to the law enforcement agency and State's Attorney office; and

(iii) the date the laboratory completes the analysis of the sexual assault evidence.

(E) for State's Attorney office fields:

(i) the date the State's Attorney office received the sexual assault evidence results from the laboratory, if applicable; and

(ii) the disposition or status of the case.

(a-2) The Commission also developed guidelines for secure electronic access to a tracking system for a victim, or his or her designee to access information on the status of the evidence collected. The Commission recommended minimum guidelines in order to safeguard confidentiality of the information contained within this statewide tracking system. These recommendations are that the sexual assault evidence tracking system must:

(1) allow for secure access, controlled by an administering body who can restrict user access and allow different permissions based on the need of that particular user and health care facility users may include out-of-state border hospitals, if authorized by the Illinois State Police to obtain this State's kits from vendor;

(2) provide for users, other than victims, the ability to provide for any individual who is granted access to the program their own unique user ID and password;

(3) provide for a mechanism for a victim to enter the system and only access his or her own information;

(4) enable a sexual assault evidence to be tracked and identified through the unique sexual assault evidence kit identification number or barcode that the vendor applies to each sexual assault evidence kit per the Illinois State Police's contract;

(5) have a mechanism to inventory unused kits provided to a health care facility from the vendor;

(6) provide users the option to either scan the bar code or manually enter the sexual assault evidence kit number into the tracking program;

(7) provide a mechanism to create a separate unique identification number for cases in which a sexual evidence kit was not collected, but other evidence was collected;

(8) provide the ability to record date, time, and user ID whenever any user accesses the system;

(9) provide for real-time entry and update of data;

(10) contain report functions including:

(A) health care facility compliance with applicable laws;

(B) law enforcement agency compliance with applicable laws;

(C) law enforcement agency annual inventory of cases to each State's Attorney office; and

(D) forensic lab compliance with applicable laws; and

(11) provide automatic notifications to the law enforcement agency when:

(A) a health care facility has collected sexual assault evidence;

(B) unreleased sexual assault evidence that is being stored by the law enforcement agency has met the minimum storage requirement by law; and

(C) timelines as required by law are not met for a particular case, if not otherwise documented.

(b) The Illinois State Police may develop rules to implement a sexual assault evidence tracking system that conforms with subsections (a-1) and (a-2) of this Section. The Illinois State Police shall design the criteria for the sexual assault evidence tracking system so that, to the extent reasonably possible, the system can use existing technologies and products, including, but not limited to, currently available tracking systems. The sexual assault evidence tracking system shall be operational and shall begin tracking and reporting sexual assault evidence no later than one year after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 101st General Assembly. The Illinois State Police may adopt additional rules as it deems necessary to ensure that the sexual assault evidence tracking system continues to be a useful tool for law enforcement.

(c) A treatment hospital, a treatment hospital with approved pediatric transfer, an out-of-state hospital approved by the Department of Public Health to receive transfers of Illinois sexual assault survivors, or an approved pediatric health care facility defined in Section 1a of the Sexual Assault Survivors Emergency Treatment Act shall participate in the sexual assault evidence tracking system created under this Section and in accordance with rules adopted under subsection (b), including, but not limited to, the collection of sexual assault evidence and providing information regarding that evidence, including, but not limited to, providing notice to law enforcement that the evidence has been collected.

(d) The operations of the sexual assault evidence tracking system shall be funded by moneys appropriated for that purpose from the State Crime Laboratory Fund and funds provided to the Illinois State Police through asset forfeiture, together with such other funds as the General Assembly may appropriate.

(e) To ensure that the sexual assault evidence tracking system is operational, the Illinois State Police may adopt emergency rules to implement the provisions of this Section under subsection (ff) of Section 5-45 of the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act.

(f) Information, including, but not limited to, evidence and records in the sexual assault evidence tracking system is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

(Source: P.A. 101-377, eff. 8-16-19; 102-22, eff. 6-25-21; 102-523, eff. 8-20-21; 102-538, eff. 8-20-21; 102-813, eff. 5-13-22.)

(725 ILCS 202/90)

Sec. 90. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted).

(Source: P.A. 96-1011, eff. 9-1-10; text omitted.)

(725 ILCS 202/99)

Sec. 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect September 1, 2010.

(Source: P.A. 96-1011, eff. 9-1-10.)