MADISON - Attorney General Brad Schimel wants lawmakers to require police agencies to send rape kits to the state within 72 hours, a policy he says would prevent Wisconsin from again facing a mountain of years-old evidence scattered across the state.

Not every kit sent to state crime labs would be tested, however. Survivors of sexual assault would decide whether to have their kits tested for a police investigation or stored in case they want to pursue an investigation later.

"This way evidence is preserved in one centralized location and is available in the event the survivor decides law enforcement should initiate an investigation in the future," Schimel, a Republican facing a challenge in the Nov. 6 election, said Wednesday in a written statement to USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.

The 72-hour mandate would expand an existing requirement that applies only to rape kits in certain cases, and the elevated role of assault survivors would codify policies that Schimel's justice department has urged since 2016.

If survivors undergo medical exams to collect DNA and other evidence of their abuse, they can already request that the evidence — known as a rape kit — be stored in state facilities for up to 10 years.

State Rep. Melissa Sargent, who last year proposed a 30-day mandate that failed to gain traction in the Legislature, said she supports Schimel's plan but questioned if police and the state have enough resources to handle the work.

The state crime lab, hit with a surge in demand for DNA tests for all types of criminal cases, has experienced growing backlogs of new evidence and delayed testing schedules. Schimel is seeking $1.6 million next year to hire 14 additional crime lab workers to address the trend.

"It's the processing side of this that's vitally important to address as well," said Sargent, a Madison Democrat. "I clearly think it's a good idea to get rape kits into the pipeline to get processed as quickly as possible."

Schimel told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin he also wants lawmakers to allow the state crime lab to communicate with survivors about rape kits if they want to be informed. The lab currently can communicate only with law enforcement agencies about evidence, he said.

Erin Thornley-Parisi, executive director of the Rape Crisis Center in Dane County, said she supports Schimel's proposed 72-hour mandate and giving survivors more control over whether their rape kits are tested or stored. But allowing crime lab workers to communicate with survivors drew concerns.

"We do work hard to empower survivors so they may have as much control as possible over their own kits and their participation in the criminal justice system, but I would want the crime lab staff to have training on trauma-informed conversations to prevent re-traumatization," she said.

A spokesman for the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, a nonprofit that represents organizations across the state seeking to end sexual violence, said it broadly supports Schimel's proposals but had not yet reviewed any specific language.

Schimel outlined his proposals Wednesday in a statement from his re-election campaign. He's vying to fend off a challenge from Democrat Josh Kaul and secure a second term in office in November.

Kaul has criticized Schimel over his response to years-old rape kits. By the time Schimel took office in January 2015, justice officials estimated more than 6,000 kits were sitting in police stations and hospitals across Wisconsin, but little else was known about the evidence.

Schimel has touted testing more than 4,100 rape kits since 2015 — overcoming a variety of unforeseen delays — and his justice department has taken other steps aimed at improving how sexual assault cases are handled. Justice officials have obtained $8.1 million in grants for rape kits since September 2015.

While outlining his legislative proposals Wednesday, Schimel also took a swipe at Kaul, a civil rights attorney and former Baltimore federal prosecutor.

"As the only candidate for attorney general to ever prosecute sexual assault cases, I believe state law should be changed to improve outcomes for survivors and prosecutors," he said. "I am glad we resolved this problem that has been ongoing for decades, but we have to ensure this never happens again."

Kaul was traveling Wednesday for campaign events. In a written statement, Kaul said he would work as attorney general to provide clear guidance and training to law enforcement about when rape kits must be submitted for testing.

"State law should be clearer as to how quickly kits should be submitted for testing, it should provide that survivors have a right to obtain information about the progress of testing on their kits and it should make clear that a kit will not be tested without consent from the survivor," he said.

Sargent questioned why Schimel hadn't made his proposals public sooner than a month before the election.

"He's spent months sitting on the sidelines," she said.

In April, a USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin investigation of rape kits found that hundreds were left untested for years despite a state law that required police to submit the evidence to state crime labs for DNA analysis.

Justice officials said the pattern underscored a need for a "legislative overhaul," and the next month Schimel told lawmakers that he was working to draft legislation with a group of advocates, forensic nurses, law enforcement officials and others.

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin's investigation focused on a 2011 law that was introduced and approved as part of that year’s state budget with little public discussion. Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who signed the 2011 budget bill, said in April that he backed "strengthening" state laws for rape kits testing.

But neither Walker nor his Democrat challenger on Nov. 6, state schools Superintendent Tony Evers, immediately responded to messages Wednesday seeking comment.

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