Drivers can donate to help fund statewide rape kit testing

Donations taken to help end rape kit testing backlog starting Jan. 1

SAN ANTONIO – Drivers will soon have the power to help end the rape kit testing backlog in the state of Texas.

New laws enacted Sept. 1 will give Texans the option to donate $1 or more to fund the testing of rape kits when they renew their driver’s licenses and personal identification cards, register a vehicle or renew a vehicle registration.

State Rep. Victoria Neave, a Dallas-area Democrat, drafted House Bill 1729 and House Bill 4102.

“In my view, we should not have to come to our fellow Texans to contribute. Our state should be fully funding this issue,” Neave said. “But the fact of the matter is, it’s not.”

Neave said the idea of crowdfunding rape kit testing came after she saw a need and reviewed the success of similar donations made to fund other causes, such as veterans’ issues.

For years, Texas has grappled with a backlog of thousands of untested rape kits, potentially slowing down the work of investigators and sexual assault survivors’ search for justice.

“It’s about money,” said Deana Franks, interim director of the Rape Crisis Center. “It’s not that no one wants to process them. Unfortunately, it's money.”

Franks and the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office point out that there is currently no backlog in Bexar County.

During fiscal year 2017, the Bexar County Crime Lab tested 589 rape kits. Each cost $315 to test, totaling $185,535, which comes out of city and county budgets.

As of Oct. 1, the cost to test each kit increased to $329. That increase will help pay for two new forensic serologists to help with the testing.

And as of Wednesday, 153 rape kits were waiting at the lab to be tested.  The lab could not confirm how many of those were more than 30 days old, which is the time period by which a backlog is defined.

Neave said more than 1,000 kits were waiting to be tested earlier this year in the Dallas area.

The money drivers can soon choose to donate to fund that testing will go to the State Comptroller Office and will be awarded to local municipalities that apply for an evidence testing grant.

“I’ve seen the comments that people have made. (I’m) very frustrated that we're even having to do this in the first place,” Franks said. “But at least it’s an option.”

It’s an option Franks hopes Texans will choose not just to help catch a criminal but to help survivors as well.

"If you go through the trouble of having an exam and having all this evidence collected and go through that process and the evidence just sits on a shelf, then it seems like no one cared,” she said. “No one gave the time of day to help me. No one believed me.”

“I believe that through the compassion of our neighbors, compassion of our fellow Texans, $1 here or $1 there can really make a meaningful impact,” Neave said.


About the Author:

Myra Arthur is passionate about San Antonio and sharing its stories. She graduated high school in the Alamo City and always wanted to anchor and report in her hometown. Myra anchors KSAT News at 6:00 p.m. and hosts and reports for the streaming show, KSAT Explains. She joined KSAT in 2012 after anchoring and reporting in Waco and Corpus Christi.