Houston policeDNA testingsexual assaultHouston police review potential impact of DNA tests on thousands of dropped sexual assault and sex crime cases due to staffing issues.
Houston police are examining whether DNA testing linked to thousands of dropped sexual assault and sex crime cases, due to manpower shortages, could have led to identifying potential suspects and arrests. Over 4,000 sexual assault cases were part of more than 264,000 cases not submitted for investigation over the past eight years, with 95 matches found in the CODIS database from tested DNA kits. An internal review is ongoing to address the use of an internal code that resulted in these cases being dropped and to ensure accountability and improvement in case handling.