Dallas Approves $2.3 Million to Process Incomplete Sexual Assault Kits

A total of 1,899 sexual assault kits handed over to the Dallas Police Department remain untested. Of these, 1053 are dated before 2011.

“From 2011 to 2019, we still have 846 sexual harassment kits in storage,” said Albert Martinez, executive assistant chief of the police department.

According to Martinez, the kits “from 2019 to the present, are tested every night before these 90 days,” as required by law.

In 2019, Texas legislators passed House Bill 8, also known as the Lavinia Masters Act. The law requires crime labs to test a sexual assault kit within 90 days of receiving a request.

The law is named after Lavinia Masters, a survivor and activist. Her rape kit remained untested for over two decades. While progress has been made in closing the backlog, Masters said more needs to be done to speed up the process.

“It’s a little annoying when I hear that number,” Masters said. “Very frustrating because I know that these are the victims who are waiting for answers, the survivors are waiting for answers on their case. Will (testing) be done in time for fairness?”

The law also extends the criminal statute of limitations for cases that have not been verified. However, Masters said it was about doing justice and closing for survivors and their families.

“I know that Dallas is a large metropolitan area with a lot of crime and such; there are still a lot of them,” Masters said of the backlog.

The Dallas City Council also wants survivors to get answers and justice. On December 14, council members approved approximately $2,345,887.45 for the Dallas Police Department.

The council approved a “three-year agreement on joint purchases of sexual services.”
assault kits and processing services for the Police Department with Bode Cellmark Forensics, Inc. pursuant to the General Services Administration Cooperation Agreement.”

“The forensic tools featured here will help expedite the shipping and testing of these crime-solving and investigation kits,” said Dallas District 13 City Council member Gay Donnell Willis.

The Dallas Police Department said the current backlog is due in part to COVID-19 and a shortage of staff at their partner lab.

“We don’t have our own lab, so we rely on the Southwestern Forensic Science Institute, or (SWIFT) as we call them,” Martinez said. “SWIFT has been testing these pending orders. But partly they were affected by the personnel issue, and then they were affected by the coronavirus pandemic. So that really slowed us down from 2020 to 2021. And then we started picking up speed again. .”

Now they will also be outsourcing to Bode Technology.

“We actually started with the processing of incomplete sexual harassment files in 2000, working on a large backlog with New York City,” said Mike Cariola, CEO and President of Bode Technology. “Today, we handle between 10 and 20,000 court cases a year, and that comes mostly from the United States. City, states, federal government, including sexual assault homicides (and) property crimes.”

The cost of testing one kit can range from $1,000 to $5,000 depending on the technology used.

“Our job is to try to identify foreign DNA,” Cariola said. “In one case, there may be from three to eight pieces of evidence in one set, which are also checked. So you are talking about thousands of samples even for such a project.”

Bode was selected based on its experience with agencies including the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Houston Police Department, and the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department.

“We are accredited to the same standards as the Texas DPS and other state labs,” Cariola said. “We follow the same standards, we use the same technology as these public labs.”

While the money has been approved by the Dallas City Council, the contract agreement and payment for Bode Technology is yet to be finalized. Martinez said the Dallas police hope to have him ready by March.

For the masters, this is another step forward in the right direction.

“I’m always glad someone is willing to help us through this process,” Masters said. “It’s just amazing.”
Masters continues to advocate for and empower survivors of sexual assault through her non-profit organization. Hope Saves the Ministry.