$2M in grants awarded to Fort Worth organizations to help reduce rape kit backlog

Three local organizations were awarded a total of $2,095,653 in grants to help reduce the DNA and rape kit backlog.

The City of Fort Worth, the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, and Tarrant County were awarded the grants as part of the DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction (CEBR) Program.

The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Justice’s CEBR program and was authorized by the Debbie Smith Act, which U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) helped introduce.

“As long as rape kits sit untested, authorities are failing the victims and communities we’ve sworn to protect,” said Sen. Cornyn.