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posted by on Thursday April 13 2017, @09:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the when-in-doubt,-ask dept.

What do you do when you don't have the funding to address a perpetual backlog of unanalyzed rape kits? Ask drivers to foot the bill when applying for a driver's license:

Across the country, there's a backlog of kits containing potential evidence of sexual assaults. Victim advocates say the situation threatens public safety. Lawmakers in dozens of states are pushing for funding, and in Texas, one state representative has offered an innovative solution.

Thousands of rape kits sit sealed and untested in forensics labs and law enforcement offices in Texas. What's missing is state and local funding to pay to analyze the evidence in many of those kits.

If state Rep. Victoria Neave has her way, residents could help chip in. When Texans go to the Department of Public Safety office to apply for a driver's license, they'd be asked if they'd like to help the state pay to test DNA evidence from sexual assault cases — in the same way they're asked if they want to donate to support veterans or organ donation.

The Texas Department of Public Safety issues driver's licenses rather than the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles.


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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday April 14 2017, @03:14AM (1 child)

    by frojack (1554) on Friday April 14 2017, @03:14AM (#493804) Journal

    Agreed, the problem isn't ONLY the money.

    Its been known [slate.com] since 2014 that the cost of the test [endthebacklog.org] and entering the results into CODIS [fbi.gov] ranges from $500 to $1500 max. I suspect the price has come tumbling down in the years since those stories were published.

    (Samples from victims take longer and more work that the cheek swab, because there may be multiple sources, some consensual).

    Cost isn't the only, or, it turns out even the main reason for the backlog. [thebillfold.com] There are social stigmas involved, and murder cases take precedence, and god help you if your case falls behind an officer involved shooting, where its all hands on deck and all evidence gets tested in a multiple labs.

    The last administration already threw $41 Million dollars [archives.gov] specifically at the backlog problem in 2014, and apparently accomplished nothing. That was on top of $430 million in violence against women programs of equally questionable effectiveness.

    The backlog is not money related.

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  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday April 14 2017, @03:19AM

    by kaszz (4211) on Friday April 14 2017, @03:19AM (#493807) Journal

    More investigators needed?
    (ie money..)