Components of a Texas sexual assault evidence kit (photo courtesy taasa.org)

The 81 agencies that reported a count of their backlogs combined for a total of 5,496 untested rape kits, sets of swabs, fibers and other samples that can be tested later for DNA evidence.

That’s about as many as were uncovered in San Antonio alone by a 2009 investigation by CBS News. A recent count by the Houston Police Department — which has yet to report its total to the DPS — put their backlog at around 7,000 kits.

DPS spokesman Tom Vinger told the Texas Independent that the latest count represents the number of untested kits related to each agency’s “active” sexual assault cases. While DPS is still working to collect totals, it’s unsure how many local agencies are out there in Texas that haven’t reported.

According to the latest monthly count by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education, Texas has 2,647 separate law enforcement agencies — and while most of those aren’t big city police departments, the 81 agencies that have reported to DPS account for just a fraction of the untested kits in the state.

The reporting deadline was mandated by state Sen. Wendy Davis’ Senate Bill 1636, which passed earlier this year. As introduced, the bill would have introduced a bold but costly mandate to reduce the backlog of old rape kits waiting to be tested, but those costly requirements were stripped before the bill was passed.

Instead, the bill that made it to Gov. Rick Perry’s desk was a lighter version, without such a hefty price tag. Local law enforcement would have until October 15 to report back to DPS with how many untested kits remained in their backlog, and until April 1 to send all the kits related to open cases to the DPS or another lab. Based on the law, though, it’s not clear that there are any consequences for agencies that don’t report.

A National Institute of Justice report in May said that while nobody knows just how many untested evidence kits are out there, it’s a large percentage of the “18 percent of unsolved alleged sexual assaults that occurred from 2002 to 2007 contained forensic evidence that was still in police custody.” Nationwide, there may be 180,000 untested rape kits sitting in evidence rooms, according to another study released earlier this year.

“Testing all the kits would be a mighty big project even if we had all the money in the world,” Texas Association Against Sexual Assault deputy director Torie Camp told the Independent, but SB 1636 contains important first steps — including coming up with an accurate statewide count. “It’s laying the groundwork for testing all the kits,” she said.

The total DPS has collected so far is very incomplete, Camp said, but it suggests a “significant number” if multiplied across all the local agencies in the state.

A state analysis during the legislative session estimated there are 22,000 untested kits in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio alone, Camp pointed out, and she said it’s notable that San Antonio’s total, around 2,000, was so much lower than had been recently reported, suggesting a different definition had been used in each round of counting.

San Antonio Police Department spokesman Matthew Porter said he’d check to confirm the number reported by DPS, but that the department had worked to clear out its evidence backlog since the CBS story two years ago. While new evidence is submitted all the time, he said he believes “all the kits in that story” have since been tested.

Camp also said it’s notable that five of the six regional Texas Department of Criminal Justice inspectors reported their counts, totaling 16 untested evidence kits from sexual assaults in prison.

“I thought it was notable on this report that TDCJ was reporting in, which I think is fantastic,” Camp said. “We don’t really talk about prison rape a whole lot, but that’s it right there — these 10 rapes in prisons in the Houston region happened and have been untested.”

Camp acknowledged that the new deadline didn’t leave large police departments much time to come up with a count. She’s hopeful, though, that by the law’s next deadline in April, more agencies will get their untested evidence accounted for and submitted to a lab.

“I’d like to figure out if we can get more reporting, if DPS will press on for more reporting from all of the law enforcement entities that did not report,” Camp said. “I think that the authors of the legislation can recognize that this deadline came quickly on the heels of the legislative session.”

While Houston PD is likely the largest agency yet to report, it’s also the department where the massive backlog is being most actively addressed. In April, it was one of two recipients of a U.S. Department of Justice grant to study how its backlog got so far out of hand. As the Texas Independent reported in May, researchers at Sam Houston State University and the University of Texas at Austin are studying Houston’s lab.

HPD spokesman John Cannon told the Independent that while they have yet to report a total to DPS, they’re working on complying with the new law — not just by reporting the size of their backlog, but by submitting new kits to be tested within 30 days. He said they expect to finish their count and reply to DPS by mid-December.

“The police department has not submitted such a firm number, but at the same time is one of the few agencies that’s right in the midst of an audit,” Cannon said. “It would be safe to say that we’ve made it a priority here, there’s no doubt about that.”

So how serious of an issue is sexual harassment in this country? The same day as Cain’s latest press conference, the American Association of University Women released results of a national study (PDF) showing more than half of students in grades 7 through 12 report experiencing some form of sexual harassment.

The study included nearly 1,965 students in high schools across the country, conducted in May and June 2011. In this study, the researchers used the definition from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights:

Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, which can include unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature. Thus, sexual harassment prohibited by Title IX can include conduct such as touching of a sexual nature; making sexual comments, jokes, or gestures; writing graffiti or displaying or distributing sexually explicit drawings, pictures, or written materials; calling students sexually charged names; spreading sexual rumors; rating students on sexual activity or performance; or circulating, showing, or creating e-mails or Web sites of a sexual nature.

Some of the findings:

• 48 percent of the students surveyed experienced some form of sexual harassment; 87 percent of those students said it had a negative effect on them.
• 56 percent of girls reported being sexually harassed, vs. 40 percent of boys.
• 30 percent of students were affected by text, email, Facebook; many of those who reported being harassed in cyberspace were also sexually harassed in person.
• 18 percent of girls and boys reported being called gay or lesbian in a negative way.
• 13 percent of girls reported being touched in an “unwelcome sexual way.”
• 9 percent reported being physically intimidated in a sexual way.
• 4 percent reported being forced to do something sexual.
• 9 percent of students (12 percent of girls, 5 percent of boys) who claim to have been sexually harassed reported the incident to a teacher, guidance counselor or other adult at school; 27 percent of students said they talked about the incident to parents or family, and 23 percent said they spoke about it with friends.
• 22 percent of girls and 14 percent of boys reported having trouble sleeping as a direct result of being sexually harassed; 37 percent of girls and 25 percent of boys reported not wanting to go to school after the sexual harassment.

The Post story drew widespread condemnation when it appeared Wednesday. In it, a Post reporter followed the victim from the hotel where Strauss-Kahn allegedly sexually assaulted her to a Bronx apartment building rented exclusively to those persons living with HIV/AIDS. Stauss-Kahn was accused of the assault over the weekend, and was arrested on an Air France flight as he was preparing to leave the country.

In a press statement, Housing Works, a group that works with HIV positive people, had this to say about the news report:

The Post’s reckless disregard for the sexual assault survivor’s confidentiality potentially jeopardizes her relationships with friends, family, and coworkers, and further victimizes a woman who may have already suffered a grievous attack. The tabloid headline of the story, as well as its glib, vulgar lead sentence are a transparent attempt to fan the flames of AIDSphobia.

“Once again the New York Post proves that they are happy to trample on human dignity to sell newspapers. There is no public interest in knowing this woman’s HIV status—yet the woman herself could suffer greatly from the revelation,” said Housing Works President and CEO Charles King. “The Post’s story is an attack on women and all people with HIV.”

An attorney for the victim denies she lives in the housing unit, or is HIV-positive, reports the New York Daily News. He also denies the victim consented to sexual contact with Strauss-Kahn.

Strauss-Kahn resigned as president of the IMF on Wednesday, and political experts say his political aspirations to be the Socialist candidate to challenge for the French presidency next year are dead.

Part I gained some notoriety when Dr. Kaye Whitley, director of the Pentagon’s sexual assault prevention and response office, defied a subpoena from the House oversight national security subcommittee and didn’t show up. Today Whitley, on orders from Defense Sec. Robert Gates, did appear– and gave her explanation for why she didn’t show up the first time.

“I was in a van and we pulled up in front of the [House Rayburn] building,” Whitley told Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.). “Then Mr. [Michael] Dominguez [a deputy undersecretary for defense and Whitley's superior] said I would not testify. He gave me a direct order.”

“Did you ask why?” Shays asked.

“I didn’t really have time,” Whitley replied, “and I thought following advice from superiors was the best course of action.”

Shays later called Whitley “weak” and committee members from both parties piled on the Pentagon for still not assembling the resources and strategy necessary to meaningfully combat sexual assault. The Pentagon reported that 2,700 woman were assaulted by servicemembers in 2007. A Government Accountability Office representative at the hearing said that more than half of the military personnel they surveyed that were assaulted did not report the crime.

Whitley’s sexual assault and prevention office was established in 2005. But the Pentagon division has less than a dozen staff members and no plan to instill what former Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld called “zero tolerance” for sexual assault.

“There have been 18 reports on sexual assault in the military since 1988,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), “And they haven’t done anything.”

To be fair, the GAO report at the hearing said the Pentagon has improved methods for reporting assaults while protecting the victim’s confidentiality. But the small improvements made have not been implemented in combat environments.

So the sideshow of Whitley finally showing up to testify should not distract from the lack of resources available to active-duty soldiers that

+have been assaulted.