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Senate considers pilot to speed sexual assault kit transfer to state lab; amendment would require 7‑day delivery
Summary
Senate bill 145 (replace amendment) would require that sexual assault evidence collection kits be transferred to the state crime laboratory within seven business days; if local staffing prevents direct delivery, authorized common carriers (storefront drop‑off with tracking) may be used and agencies can seek reimbursement under a pilot program.
Sen. Deborah Altschuler presented a replacement amendment to Senate Bill 145 that creates a pilot program to expedite transfer of sexual assault evidence collection kits to the state crime laboratory. The amendment would require law enforcement agencies to deliver hospital‑collected kits to the lab within seven business days or, if staffing prevents timely hand delivery, to use a tracked common carrier (such as FedEx or UPS) from a storefront drop‑off during lab business hours.
Altschuler said the amendment responds to long testing delays that existed when the state contracted analysis to an out‑of‑state lab and to ongoing challenges for small, rural police departments that lack staff to transport kits during business hours. She described a prior timeline in which kits were sent out of state, producing 16–18 week turnaround time; with new in‑state equipment online, the bottleneck shifted to transporting kits to Concord for testing.
Melissa Staples, director of the New Hampshire State Police Forensic Laboratory, testified about scope and recommended clarifying language. She suggested specifying that the transfer requirement applies to “all evidence collected by medical personnel in a sexual assault case occurring in New Hampshire,” which would encompass the probative samples most important to prosecutions.
Pamela Kiley of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence said survivors have repeatedly told advocates it is important that their kits be tested promptly; the coalition supported the pilot and the amendment’s emphasis on timeliness and chain‑of‑custody safeguards. Committee members discussed reimbursement for common‑carrier costs and emphasized that deliveries must be logged to protect chain of custody. Altschuler said the pilot is “all carrot, no stick” — designed to help small departments comply, not to punish them.
The committee approved an amendment (0 2 6 5 s) and moved the bill forward as amended; staff will complete a fiscal note and implementation details for reimbursement during subsequent drafting.
