Three Fort Worth area recipients have been awarded more than $2 million in grants to reduce the state’s backlog of untested DNA and rape kits, officials said in a news release this week.

The city of Fort Worth, Tarrant County and the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth were awarded the grants, which are funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction Program and authorized by the Debbie Smith Act sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn.

“As long as rape kits sit untested, authorities are failing the victims and communities we’ve sworn to protect,” Cornyn said in the news release. “I am proud to have authored three laws to help drive down the national backlog, and I’ll continue to do everything I can to ensure survivors receive the closure they deserve and that justice is served.”

A rape kit, also known as a sexual assault kit, includes DNA evidence from the body, clothes and other personal belongings of the victim after a sexual assault has taken place.

Michael Coble, the director of the Center for Human Identification at the UNT Health Science Center, said the lab has received the grant on a yearly basis for at least a decade.

“This funding is very helpful ... for us to continue and extend the work that we already do for Texas,” he said.

UNTHSC was awarded $787,330 for 2023.

The center handles a variety of cases involving DNA, including homicides and robberies, but 84% of its work is related to testing sexual assault kits, according to Coble. The evidence in the kits can help identify and prosecute suspects, Coble said.

Over the last few years laws have been put into place to address the backlog of untested rape kits in the state. House Bill 8, also known as the Lavinia Masters Act, was signed into law in 2019 and mandates that crime labs test sexual assault kits within 90 days after receipt.

Melissa Haas, the casework laboratory director at UNTHSC, said the center does not have a backlog of kits related to current cases, but they are working with the Texas Department of Safety to test a number of kits from the original backlog.

In 2019, the Department of Public Safety had nearly 3,000 sexual assault kits waiting to be tested.

The city of Fort Worth will receive $708,323 to address backlogged kits and the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office will receive $600,000, according to the news release.