At last count, Texas had the highest number of untested rape kits in the country.
While progress is being made, there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done to test the backlog and to assure that, on a go-forward basis, sexual assault evidence kits are tested on a timely basis.
We are proud to be part of a state-wide sexual assault task force led by State Representative Victoria Neave, which seeks to provide a myriad of solutions for how to best provide justice for rape survivors: from more sensitive intake by police, to evidence collection capacities in medical facilities, to better funding and systems for testing sexual assault evidence, to better tracking of that evidence, to timely use of that evidence and to removing statute of limitations barriers that prevent ultimate prosecution of assailants.
Our advocates made good progress on these issues in the 2017 legislative session, successfully advocating for the passage of a laws creating a new way to raise funds for testing the backlog and creating a tracking system that provides real time data on the testing status of a collected rape kit for use by both victims and law enforcement.
