El Paso, TX

In March 2021, we accessed an inventory report of untested sexual assault kits in possesion of Texas law enforcement agencies. Texas law (HB8) mandates law enforcement to take an inventory of all rape kits in the state with a report due December 2019. We found that there was serious non-compliance in terms of participation in the audit: Law enforcement agencies in eight of Texas’ ten largest cities did not report the number of untested kits in their possession. In response, in May 2021, Joyful Heart issued a public records request to the following jurisdictions: 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.