INDIANAPOLIS (WRTV) Samantha McCoy spoke with lawmakers about the most painful experience of her life.I am a survivor of rape, McCoy testified.She says police did not take a trauma-informed approach in her case, despite a state law that requires police officers to receive trauma-informed training.I was made to repeat what happened to me to rotating officers for hours, McCoy said. I was mocked, disbelieved, intimidated and emotionally destroyed.McCoy said despite going to the hospital for an exam and cooperating with police, her alleged perpetrator was never prosecuted. When all of that is said and done, and there is nothing at the end of that, that is incredibly hard to not only accept but to get past, McCoy said.Tuesday, the Interim Study Committee on Public Health, Behavioral Health, and Human Services spent two hours discussing how Indiana handles rape cases and how our state treats survivors.The state lab takes 208 days (7 months), on average, to process rape kits.The victim is waiting, the perpetrator is potentially reoffending, Beth White, executive director at the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault (ICESA) said. The community is not safe.Indiana State Police testified they currently have limited laboratory space and training DNA analysts takes two years. Another issue is that Indiana has a shortage of SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners) providers, or nurses who specialize in caring for rape survivors.Emily Murray, executive director of a rape crisis center in Terre Haute, said the shortage is impacting crucial evidence.Let's say someone is sexually assaulted at the top of Vermillion County, they have to drive almost an hour to get to Vigo County, and see if there's a SANE nurse available to do their rape kit, Murray said. They could be sitting in the ER for hours and hours and hours before they actually get a rape kit. You can't eat, you can't drink, you can't use the restroom, you can't do anything to protect the evidence.40 counties in Indiana have no forensic nursing coverage at all, according to ICESA.Meanwhile, our state is already dealing with a 40 percent cut in federal dollars for victims services.RELATED | Domestic violence shelters turning people away due to federal shortfall   It's like a perfect storm of a system that is failing our victims, White said.Its a problem Indiana's I-Team has been tracking for the past two years; a massive shortfall of Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grants, the primary source of federal funding for thousands of victim service providers, including programs serving victims of child abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence.VOCA dollars come from federal criminal prosecution penalties and fines, but those are now at a two-decade low.Advocates are asking state lawmakers for more funding to help sexual assault survivors and address delays in processing rape kits.Samantha McCoy is also asking lawmakers to enact consequences for law enforcement agencies who fail to comply with mandated trauma-informed training.Those standards exist for a reason, McCoy said. Had officers I interacted with been properly trained, I strongly believe the perpetrator would have been arrested.Advocates and survivors are hopeful lawmakers will file legislation to address these issues in the 2027 session, which begins in January. "Survivors deserve a response that is compassionate, coordinated and consistent. The testimony we heard during the committee meeting will help us better understand where Indiana's current system is working and where we can do more to improve it," Rep. Becky Cash, R-Zionsville, said. "I look forward to continuing this work and finding ways to ensure every survivor can access the support and resources they need."Cash said she requested this topic be studied ahead of the 2027 legislative session to prepare legislation aimed at supporting survivors of sexual assault and equipping law enforcement to better handle these cases.Cash authored HB 1073 (2026) and HB 1413 (2025), to address the backlog of untested rape kits in Indiana.She also introduced HB 1415 (2025) to establish a state sexual assault response team.Cash says she plans to continue advocating for survivors and a statewide sexual assault response plan during the 2027 legislative session.Rep. Victoria Garcia Wilburn, D-Fishers, told Indianas I-Team that addressing Indianas sexual response protocols should extend beyond partisan lines.The time to act to properly secure justice for survivors is now in this next legislative session, Garcia Wilburn said. ...read more read less