House caucus endorses House position for statewide assault-kit tracking system

Members of an Arizona House caucus on an internal caucus vote confirmed the conference committee's return to the House version of House Bill 2581, a measure directing the Department of Public Safety to establish a statewide assault-kit evidence tracking system.

The bill, as the conference committee recovered it, would require the Department of Public Safety to track the life cycle of assault kits, including collection, storage, laboratory analysis and destruction. The caucus record shows the Senate had earlier amended the bill to exempt the city of Phoenix; the conference committee removed that exemption and readopted the House-passed version.

Supporters told the caucus the purpose is to ensure a uniform system across Arizona so that the handling and disposition of kits does not vary by municipality. Chairwoman Metals said the tracking system should cover "all municipalities" and that "it should not matter where in Arizona a **** occurs. All victims and survivors deserve support."

The discussion in caucus emphasized statewide coverage and the Department of Public Safety as the implementing agency. No roll-call votes or committee motion text were recorded in the caucus transcript provided; caucus speakers described the conference committee's action as readopting the House version of the bill.

The caucus moved on after the discussion; sponsors and committee leaders said they were available for questions but no additional actions were recorded in the provided transcript.