Newly signed bill to crack down on testing of rape kits

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Lawmakers and advocates in the Bay Area are celebrating the signing of a bill cracking down on the testing of rape kits

Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill on Tuesday.

Police now have 20 days to collect evidence in a rape case and send it to the lab. The lab then has four months to process the rape kit and enter it into a national database.

One survivor waited two and a half years for her evidence to be tested. She wrote a play and contacted the ABC7 News I-Team, which launched an investigation.

"My case was repeatedly mishandled at San Francisco Police Department," said Heather Marlowe. "Through working on and performing "The Haze," it has got the attention of the SFPD and working with local law enforcement, especially Jim O'Donnell from ABC7."

O'Donnell was a producer at ABC7 News.

The signing of that bill comes after ABC7's I-Team uncovered thousands of untested rape kits sitting on police shelves across the Bay Area last year.