Some new hires and increased overtime pay are among the steps that helped the Houston Forensic Science Center cut through a backlog of untested rape kits and speed the time to complete such examinations in the future, officials announced Thursday.
On April 6, Mayor Sylvester Turner pledged the agency would eliminate the case logjam – at the time, about 375 untested kits – and achieve a 30-day window for carrying out the testing.
Turner set July 1 as the date he wanted the objectives to be met.
“This has been a challenging project; however, the entire team was determined to meet the goal, not only because of the commitment made by the mayor but also because we understand the importance of sexual assault testing to an investigation,” said Daniel Garner, president of the Houston Forensic Science Center.
To meet the goals within the three-month time period, officials shifted personnel from other departments to the center’s forensic biology section, authorized overtime pay and the hiring of four new analysts and a new section manager, and tapped into grant funds to purchase additional DNA testing equipment for the biology section. Even while analysts were steadily whittling the backlog, fresh cases were being presented to the city’s forensic center. In April and May, the center received more than 170 new rape kits to be tested.
Center officials are confident the fresh resources will in the future help them meet the 30-day testing goal.
“Sustaining a 30-day turnaround time will ensure that crucial scientific evidence is made available early in an investigation when it has the most impact on justice being served,” Garner said.
In 2002, rape kit testing was temporarily suspended at the Houston Police Department’s crime lab after an audit cited unqualified personnel and shoddy facilities, including a roof that leaked rainwater onto evidence.
Then-Mayor Annise Parker announced plans in 2013 to use more than $4 million – about half from federal grants and the rest from funds in that year’s municipal budget that were set aside for testing – to erase an even larger rape kit backlog. More than 6,600 untested DNA cases were outsourced to two private firms.
City leaders created a government corporation – the Houston Forensic Science Center – to take over crime lab operations from the Houston Police Department. It is overseen by a board of directors appointed by the mayor of Houston and confirmed by Houston’s City Council.
In May, the Chronicle reported the Harris County crime lab had a backlog of more than 4,600 cases, straining its ability to complete the processing of such evidence for sexual assaults and triggering a debate over how to prioritize cases.
At the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, an increase in property crime, robbery and assault has stretched the lab’s resources.
Officials there are also concerned about how a backlog has affected sexual assault cases. Sexual assault cases took on average of 172 days to complete in 2015, far from the county’s 60-day goal and the roughly 60 to 90 days they took from 2009 to 2013.