Sam Houston would be proud
As of today, Houston's Police Department has no rape kits
that have not been DNA tested.
The police department used federal grants and city funding to pay for processing the rape kits, in addition to testing evidence in other pending cases for possible DNA, the chief said. Rape kits are the informal term for biological samples as well as physical evidence gathered from victims of sexual assaults, which are later processed to see if they match the DNA of a suspect.
Police officials say they have the laboratory capacity, both inside HPD and in outside labs, to keep a backlog from developing.
The import of this milestone is
very tangible.
Charges have been filed against 29 people, six of whom have been convicted, since the city launched an effort in 2013 to test 6,663 rape kits — some of which dated back nearly three decades. Testing was completed in the fall, and the results have now been uploaded to a database used by investigators nationwide to compare DNA profiles of possible suspects, Mayor Annise Parker said.
"This milestone is of special importance to rape survivors and their families and friends because it means their cases are receiving the attention they should have years ago," Parker said at a news conference, where she joined local law enforcement officials to announce the results.
There is still work to be done
across the nation. There are potentially
hundreds of thousands of rape kits are still untested. Places like Detroit are just, finally, attempting to tackle
backlogs of over 10,000 kits. That does not take away from how huge a victory the Houston case is for the thousands of people affected by sexual violence.