Renewed cooperation eliminates backlog of sexual assault evidence kits

After years of discord, the team created to improve Travis County’s response to sexual assault is back to collaborating, team members told the Commissioners Court Tuesday, and a backlog of untested evidence kits has been processed. Spurred by state law enacted in 2021, the members of SARRT, or the Austin/Travis County Sexual Assault Response and Resource Team, are sitting at the table again. 

Cooperation faltered in 2017 as the Austin Police Department was engulfed in scandal over thousands of untested sexual assault forensic exams, sometimes called rape kits, which preserve possible DNA evidence. The backlog led to lawsuits against the city and county and the closing of the APD forensic lab. 

“In 2017, there was a divide among SARRT members,” SARRT coordinator Marcy Alonzo said during the group’s report to commissioners. “But with the passing of (Senate Bill) 476, partners are required to return to the table and work together to incorporate best practices.” 

The team’s reunification has been its most significant accomplishment of recent years, said Emily LeBlanc, chief program officer at Court Appointed Special Advocates of Travis County. 

“There was some division in 2017 and some political maneuvering that resulted in the splitting of some groups,” she said. “Everyone’s back at the table now, collaborating, working together, learning from each other.” 

Precinct 2 Commissioner Brigid Shea asked for more specifics. Among the results of the reunion is the elimination of the rape kit backlog.

“The forensic lab provides numbers to the SARRT every month,” LeBlanc said. “And for over a year now, probably a couple of years now, they’re sending kits off in a timely fashion. There’s a new statute that dictates how quickly those things have to happen.” 

Numerous organizations have been involved in the effort to process the forensic exams. The national Sexual Assault Kit Initiative awarded Austin a $2 million grant in 2017 to work through the backlog of more than 3,700 untested kits, according to the SAKI website. Some kits had been sitting on shelves since the 1990s. In 2019, Texas lawmakers passed House Bill 8 requiring crime labs to test sexual assault kits within 90 days of receiving a request.

“So there’s no backlog?” Shea said. “That’s great news. That’s significant given that there was such outrage over the enormous backlog in the past.”

LeBlanc said the kits have been processed, though the investigation and prosecution of the cases is still underway. APD has dedicated a cold case unit to the effort. 

Shea wanted to know who was responsible for testing the kits. “That was the other issue,” she said. “There was a huge problem with the accuracy of the APD lab and the results we were getting.”

LeBlanc said a new, independent lab is now open in Austin. 

“They also outsource – especially for the backlog, they outsource to a number of labs,” she said. 

Shea asked if this has led to a significant number of rape cases moving through the courts.

“That remains to be seen,” LeBlanc said. “Not all of the cases will be prosecuted. Some have already been dismissed or the perpetrators are deceased or already in jail for something else.” 

It takes time to sort through cases, decide which to investigate and contact victims to see if they want to continue, LeBlanc said.

In 2021, Travis County commissioners voted to spend $580,000 to settle two lawsuits alleging law enforcement officials failed to properly prosecute sexual assault cases.

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