Gail’s law now allowing sexual assault victims to track their rape kits in most of Florida

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Victims of rape and sexual assault in most of Florida now have the ability to track the status of their sexual assault kits.

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On Wednesday, FDLE announced the system had been launched in 41 of Florida’s 67 counties.

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It’s thanks to a state law enacted in 2021 that came into response to years of backlogs.

Gail Gardner was raped in 1988 by an attacker unknown to her.

She waited for decades to finally learn his identity through testing of her sexual assault kit.

“30 years I didn’t know what happened to my kit. I didn’t have an idea of what was next,” said Gardner.

Read: Woman files lawsuit against San Francisco after her rape kit DNA was used to arrest her

Gardner wasn’t alone.

According to EndTheBacklog.org, FDLE reported more than 13,000 untested rape kits in Florida in 2015.

Related Story: Hundreds of rape test kits sit untested inside JSO building

Through the advocacy of Gardner and other survivors who pushed for reforms to the processing of rape kits, Florida’s backlog was officially cleared in 2019.

Now, one of the final reforms passed in 2021 bearing Gail’s name is finally taking off.

“Gail’s law is empowering those individuals to track their kits,” said Teresa Miles with Women’s Center of Jacksonville.

Women’s Center of Jacksonville was the first to test the new tracking system starting in June of 2022.

Survivors are given a card with a barcode and can access a secure website to see where their kits are in the process.

They can even receive alerts if their kit yields a DNA match.

Read: More the 3,600 rape kits no longer backlogged

Miles says 158 survivors at Women’s Center of Jacksonville have had their kits tracked through the system since it launched in June.

“Sexual assault survivors, they often lose that control when something is taken from them, their body autonomy. And this gives them an opportunity to regain that control and feel empowered to know that they have the ability to hold systems accountable,” said Miles.

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The tracking system will fully come online in all 67 counties in July.