Texas

In 2025, Texas enacted HB1422, which allows survivors of sexual assault to consent to limited forensic DNA testing and comparison without the necessity of reporting the offense to law enforcement. Under this new law, survivors giving limited consent will be notified of DNA matches.

In 2025, Texan legislators introduced HB3119, which would have increased kit preservation from 5 years to 20 years, and until the survivor turns 40 years old in cases involving minors. This bill failed to pass.

In 2025, legislators in Texas enacted SB608, which would require tracking system reports to include the number of kits that law enforcement did not take possession of during the kit collection process.

In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded the Harris County District Attorney’s Office nearly $2.5 million to improve the state’s response to cold case sexual assaults and sexually motivated homicides; the City of Austin $1.5 million to investigate and prosecute sexual assault cold cases; and Dallas County more than $3.8 million in federal grants for the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) and to establish the Dallas County Cold Case Initiative Project.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Statewide Electronic Tracking System Report, since 2019, the state has 277 kits that have not been submitted to the lab for testing for over 30 days and 889 kits that have been waiting for testing for over 90 days. Prior to 2019, there were 3,344 backlogged kits, of which 1,347 kits have been tested as of 2024. In total, Texas has 3,163 backlogged kits.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), in the fifth year of the statewide tracking system, 50,727 SAKs are being tracked in Track-Kit; 1,347 previously backlogged kits are tested since March 2022; and turnaround times for sexual assault kits (SAKs) remain under 90 calendar days for DPS labs across the state.

HB1 allocated $2.2 million over fiscal years 2024-2025 to provide grants to local law enforcement agencies or counties for testing evidence collected for sexual assault or other sex offenses.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Statewide Electronic Tracking System Report, since 2019, the state has 293 kits that have not been submitted to the lab for testing for over 30 days and 2,011 kits that have been waiting for testing for over 90 days. Prior to 2019, there were 3,344 backlogged kits, of which 955 kits have been tested as of 2023. In total, Texas has 4,693 backlogged kits.

In 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded the Texas Department of Public Safety $1,500,000 to fund the investigation and prosecution of these cold case sexual assaults.

SB806 granted survivors the right to track or receive updates regarding the
status and location of each item of evidence; be provided the contact information of the crime victim liaison at their local law enforcement agency; be presented a physical document identifying their rights and information about the statewide electronic tracking system.

A budget of $2.3 million has been approved to process 1,899 untested sexual assault kits with the Dallas Police Department. 1,053 of those kits were collected before 2011. Since 2019, crime labs are required to test a sexual assault kit within 90 days of receiving a request, but backlogged kits collected before the law passed remain untested.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Statewide Electronic Tracking System Report, since 2019, the state has 313 kits that have not been submitted to the lab for testing for over 30 days and 1,451 kits that have been waiting for testing for over 90 days. Prior to 2019, there were 3,344 backlogged kits, of which 162 kits have been tested as of 2022. In total, Texas has 4,946 backlogged kits.

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded the Texas Department of Public Safety $1.5 million to fund the investigation and prosecution of these cold case sexual assaults. The Department was awarded an additional $1.5 million to collection lawfully owed DNA.

HB2706 strengthened the rape kit handling process by extending the time frame for kits to be collected to 120 hours instead of 96 hours under previous law.

HB2462 ensured that law enforcement professionals cannot decline a forensic medical exam for a survivor, that kits of deceased victims are entered into the tracking system, and that annual reports from the tracking system are accessible on the Public Safety Department’s website.

HB1172 granted survivors the right to an advocate during interviews with law enforcement.

HB3607 extended victims’ rights by ensuring that kits are destroyed only after written instructions are given to the survivor about how to make a written objection to the destruction, and after the survivor does not object for 90 days.

SB476 required counties to establish Sexual Assault Response Teams (SART) that meet quarterly and review and amend protocols, forms, and guidelines as necessary to ensure a coordinated response for adult sexual assault survivors.

SB1 allocated $51,590,485 over 2022-2023 to test backlogged rape kits.

In 2021, the untested kit backlog number in Texas increased to 6,108, as noted in the February 2021 Dallas Morning News Op-ed by U.S. Senator John Cornyn. This number derives from:

• The 3,582 SAKs uncovered in the 2020 inventory
• 243 kits in lab possession that were outside the mandated 90-day window for them to test kits
• and another 2,283 untested kits, in lab possession, from the original backlog of 20,000

It’s important to note that 200 law enforcement agencies, including eight police agencies from the states 10 largest cities, did not participate in the inventory mandated by HB8. The Joyful Heart Foundation sent public records requests to the following agencies: Arlington Police Department, Corpus Christi Police Department, Dallas Sheriff’s Department, El Paso Police Department, Fort Worth Police Department, Houston Police Department, Laredo Police Department, San Antonio Police Department, and Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Statewide Electronic Tracking System Report, since 2019, the state has 216 kits that have not been submitted to the lab for testing for over 30 days and 1,079 kits that have been waiting for testing for over 90 days. Prior to 2019, there were 3,444 backlogged kits. Texas has not provided any update on the progress of these kits.

In 2021, BJA awarded Dallas County $2,443,081 to test kits, investigate and prosecute cases, and re-engage survivors.

In 2020, BJA awarded the city of Irving $79,902 to test kits, investigate and prosecute cases, and re-engage survivors.

In 2019, Texas continued improving its rape kit handling laws and enacted HB8, establishing a time frame for the submission and analysis of newly collected kits. Law enforcement agencies are required to collect kits from medical facilities within seven to 14 days, depending on the distance between the agency and the medical facility. Crime labs are required to test kits within 90 days of receipt from law enforcement. The law also mandated law enforcement to take an inventory of all rape kits in the state, with a report due December 2019. Law enforcement agencies were to submit any kits from active investigations to a crime lab by January 2020. Furthermore, the bill prohibited law enforcement agencies from destroying rape kits related to an unchanged or unsolved case for 40 years, and required the Texas Department of Public Safety to develop a protocol for notifying survivors before planned destruction of their kits. Finally, it extended the statute of limitations in sexual assault cases when forensic evidence has not been tested or no match has occurred in the database.

In 2019, the BJA awarded the city of Denton $499,890, and the Texas Department of Public Safety $1 million with an additional $996,959 to sustain its work on rape kit reform.

In 2019, Texas’ tracking system went live.

In 2018, BJA awarded the city of Austin and Dallas County $1 million and $1.83 million respectively to continue their work on rape kit reform. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) awarded the Texas Department of Public Safety $396,181 for DNA capacity enhancement and backlog reduction program.

HB1729 established a voluntary donation program for people filling out driver’s license applications to help fund the testing of rape kits. Read our letters of support.

HB3152 strengthened access to high-quality medical forensic exams for survivors of sexual assault. Read our letter of support.

HB281 required the establishment of a statewide rape kit tracking system, enabling sexual assault survivors to anonymously track or receive updates regarding the status of their kits. Read our testimony in support of HB281.

In 2017, BJA awarded the city of Austin $2 million to support local efforts to inventory and test kits, investigate and prosecute resulting cases, and support survivor re-engagement efforts.

In 2017, an article cited reports from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) that put the backlog of untested kits in the state at 2,138.

In 2017, Texas became the first state to implement all six of Joyful Heart’s pillars of comprehensive rape kit reform. Read our press release here.

In 2016, BJA awarded Dallas County an additional $1 million to sustain its work on rape kit reform.

In 2015, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office awarded the Austin Police Department $1,994,648 to test 3,070 rape kits; the Jefferson County Regional Crime Laboratory $789,223 to test 1,300 rape kits; and the Travis County Sheriff’s Office $97,305 to test 148 rape kits. Also in 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded Dallas County $1,599,170 to test kits, investigate and prosecute cases, and re-engage survivors.

In 2013, Texas legislators passed SB1192, amending the Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights to grant survivors of sexual assault the right to access information about the location and status of their rape kits. That year, legislators also appropriated $11 million in funding to test backlogged kits.

At this time, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) reported the backlog in Texas at approximately 20,000 kits.

In 2011, Texas enacted SB1636, requiring law enforcement agencies to send all newly collected kits to a crime lab for testing within 30 days. The law directed the lab to test the kits as soon as is feasible. The law also required law enforcement agencies to count the untested rape kits in their storage facilities, and to have them analyzed by September 2014.