BATON ROUGE — While the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab's sexual assault kit tracking system complies with state law, the Legislative Auditor's office feels these laws could be strengthened to improve the information tracked and displayed for sexual assault survivors. 

As of February 2026, law enforcement had not submitted 337 of the 1,879 reported sexual assault kits collected from July 2024 through December 2025 as required by law. The auditor's report released Monday notes that state law does not explicitly say that all kits submitted to crime labs must be tested. 

Louisiana created its current tracking system in 2023, joining 40 other states to allow victims to track the status of their rape kits. Starting in August 2026, the state requires the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab to create a statewide Combined DNA Index System hit tracking system to increase accountability and transparency regarding law enforcement follow-up on incidents. 

The state's kit tracking system does not always display the accurate location and status of the kit. The auditor says this is because the system has limited status options and not all required entities are participating in the system. 

Additionally, more than a quarter of kits collected between July 2024 and December 2025 did not meet the timeframes for law enforcement pickup. State law does not, the auditor added, establish these timeframes, unlike other states.

"We found as well that ensuring that entities comply with statutory Kit Tracking System requirements and required timeframes is challenging because there is no oversight authority and state law does not include penalties for noncompliance," Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack says.

Waguespack recommended that, in addition to the creation of the CODIS system, the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab make adjustments to the kit tracking system to collect and display accurate locations and statuses of the kits, as well as expand automated alerts in the system to notify entities when actions are due. 

Waguespack also recommended having the Crime Lab publish its kit tracking system annual report on its website to increase transparency, among other logistical improvements at multiple levels of the process. 

The full report can be found here.