There is less than a 30% chance that a rape victim in most major Texas cities sees justice served. According to FBI clearance rate data collected from city police departments, the city of Austin only cleared about 27% of rape cases between February 2025 to February 2026. Victims in the city of Houston only fared slightly better with nearly 29% of cases cleared in the same time frame. San Antonio victims had their cases cleared at a rate of less than 13%, while Dallas victims had the highest rate of cleared cases at 36%. This is just the number of cases in which local police departments have identified a perpetrator. This does not mean that the justice system held the offender accountable or that the case even made it to a trial.
Earlier this spring, news outlets in Austin reported that local police were not conducting proper in-person checks on registered sex offenders, leaving dangerous criminals free from oversight and victims distressed over the possibility of confronting their assailant. According to an article from the Austin American-Statesman, Austin police conducted about 0.17 compliance checks per registered sex offender. In contrast, the City of Fort Worth conducted more than 1 check per offender and San Antonio conducted about 0.83 checks per offender. In other words, the Austin police department’s compliance check numbers were abysmally low compared to other major Texas cities. The driving factors behind this, according to the Austin Police Department, appear to be gaps in funding and lack of adequate staffing.
In recent years, local departments have also faced challenges with rape kit backlogs. With funding help from city councils and state grant programs, several cities, like Fort Worth, were able to test hundreds of sexual assault DNA kits that have been sitting with the department for months. However, this is not a one-time fix. City governments and police departments must continue to prioritize the testing of sexual assault kits to prevent further backlogs and to help detectives and analysts solve cases to ultimately bring justice to crime victims. To do this, they need state support to do their jobs and keep communities safe.
In 2025, the Texas Legislature passed SB 2177, which allowed for the creation of a grant program designed to assist local law enforcement departments throughout the state to solve violent and sexual offenses. After the governor signed the bill into law, the grant program was established, but no funding had been allocated. This spring, the Speaker of the House charged the Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence with investigating ways to improve statewide clearance rates in the interim. In the 90th session, lawmakers should give this grant program the needed funding to reach local police and sheriff’s departments struggling to solve violent and sexual crimes due to resource shortages. The program would allow law enforcement agencies to use the funds to hire more investigative officers and crime analysts, invest in technological and updates to help solve violent crimes, and to update record management systems.
Victims in our great state are not getting the resources and justice they so desperately need. With greater resources, departments from Houston to San Antonio to El Paso can better serve their communities by solving violent and sexual crimes, holding perpetrators accountable, and giving victims the justice they deserve.