During the Nov. 5 Fort Worth City Council work session, Police Chief Neil Noakes updated the council on the current status of the crime lab. At his prior update on Oct. 22, Noakes said there was a backlog of more than 900 unprocessed sexual assault kits.

What’s new

A city news release states that as of Nov. 4, the current number of overdue cases in the system is 708. New activity with regard to the clearing the backlog includes:

• Assistance from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office
• 30 detectives making phone calls to each victim with backlogged sexual assault kits/cases to provide updates by Nov. 6
• The Office of the Police Oversight Monitor has been included in the process to oversee and monitor the lab’s progress
• Job openings for forensic scientists have been posted on social media and on the FWPD LinkedIn page

The news release states that in terms of new protocol, victims will be contacted if there are any delays in testing, and the detective assigned to the case will note the contact confirmation in the case file.

What’s next

To ensure transparency and accountability in this effort, the news release states FWPD officials will take several more proactive steps, including:

• Reporting progress to the City Manager’s Office and Fort Worth City Council
• Engage in weekly meetings with the City’s Legal Department and OPOM on the progress of processing the sexual assault kits
• Work with the Fort Worth crime lab to engage a vendor for a comprehensive, independent audit and benchmarking study on the lab
• Complete phone calls to victims, continue to evaluate the timelines to eliminate the backlog of outstanding cases and look for contract employees to enter DNA samples into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS