Change is coming for rape victims in Marin. The county approved a one-year pilot program at its budget hearings last month to train nurses to conduct forensic exams in Marin, which for the past decade has sent victims to Vallejo for the exams because of the low number of local cases. It’s a move that the Marin Women’s Commission called for two years ago because they said the drive exacts an emotional toll on victims and discourages reports. The pilot program will train four nurses to be on the Marin County Sexual Assault Response Team and retain them for a year at the Kaiser Permanente San Rafael Medical Center starting in November, with the hope of making the team permanent. “There is an expectation that the number of cases will go up for Marin County based upon the fact that this is a local service that’s going to be provided,” District Attorney Lori Frugoli said. The exams were outsourced from Marin General Hospital to Vallejo in 2011 because of the low frequency of cases in Marin, with two or three dozen reports of sexual assault each year. It proved difficult to retain a team of nurses trained and willing to collect evidence in Marin. This time around, nurses will rotate through Vallejo if they don’t do one exam in a month. In the future, they could also be trained to conduct domestic violence examinations. “That would certainly make the program more sustainable, but right now we’re just excited to do one step at a time, and get it right,” Ms. Frugoli said. Opinions have differed on whether Marin should move its exams back. A 2018 Marin County Civil Grand Jury report recommended the county continue to contract with Vallejo, because the program was efficient and dependable, victims at Marin General might have to wait hours until trained nurses were available, and numbers remained low, with an average of 29 exams between 2011 and 2016. During the 2018 district attorney race, Ms. Frugoli herself recommended keeping these services in Vallejo. But after she was elected, she began to work with the Marin Women’s Commission, which in 2019 recommended moving the service back, citing a more than 50 percent reduction in travel time as well as anecdotal evidence that the travel to Vallejo was a deterrent for some sexual assault victims.