A New Approach to Utilizing Evidence from Sexual Assault Kits in Texas: Benefits and Costs of a Universal Testing Statute, 1996-2011

This study is built on a previous grant from Communities Foundation of Texas assessing effects of a Texas law requiring that law enforcement agencies submit to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) all unanalyzed sexual assault kits with testable DNA between 1996 and 2011. This study sought to determine the cost effectiveness of DNA analysis of previously untested sexual assault kits as part of the requirement of Texas statute 1636. The Police Foundation worked with police agencies in Dallas, Arlington, Corpus Christi, Fort Worth, and Austin to examine cases with Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) hits (DNA matches to a person or crime) from the group of previously untested kits. Texas, with its 18,000 untested kits collected by DPS provided an excellent opportunity to determine the value of testing old sexual assault kits in which law enforcement agencies apparently saw insufficient merit in testing at the time of the report. Specifically, the research team examined what happens to these cases when the DNA results are returned to the local police agencies: How many result in re-opened investigations and arrests?