More than 1,200 rape kit deadlines were missed by the Fort Worth crime lab in five years

Fort Worth – Fort Worth police confirmed their crime lab has missed more than 1,200 state deadlines for processing rape cases in the past five years.

In October, FOX 4 reporters discovered more than 900 rape kits were overdue and unprocessed, with some cases dating back several months.

Texas state law requires law enforcement agencies to submit evidence to a laboratory for analysis no later than 30 days after receipt.

“This is a completely unacceptable situation,” Police Chief Neil Noakes said during a press conference on the matter. “We understand the urgency to resolve this issue and ensure it never occurs again. We are exploring all available options.”

Since Chief Noakes' testimony in October, 226 of the overdue kits have been processed.

Testing Rape Kits in Fort Worth

City officials said the cause of the backlog was a shortage of staff in the crime lab's biology department. The unit currently has five vacancies, with only two staff members responsible for testing sexual assault kits. The personnel problems go back to 2019.

Department officials said they recently interviewed 11 certified biologists and would make job offers to the applicants to expedite the process. The job posting will remain open until all positions are filled to improve the efficiency of processing rape packages once the backlog is cleared.

“The survivors of these crimes deserve this from us and we will not accept anything less from us,” Noakes said.

The department expects the backlog to be cleared by April 2025.