State's rapid DNA test at two county jails turns up its first lead to an unsolved case a week after launch

A state pilot that tests arrestees' DNA at the jail instead of mailing it to Austin produced its first investigative lead eight days after the testing phase began, the Texas Department of Public Safety said Monday.

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office recorded the lead on Oct. 23 after running a sample from a person booked on a felony theft charge, DPS said. The profile pointed investigators to a 2024 case. The agency released no other details, citing an open investigation.

How the pilot works

Texas law already requires jails to take a DNA sample from anyone arrested on a felony charge, and DPS runs the state's share of the national Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS. Today most booking facilities ship those swabs through the U.S. mail to the DPS lab in Austin.

Once a sample arrives, processing takes 25 days on average, DPS said, and a person can be released before a match comes back.

Rapid DNA machines run the test automatically once a swab goes in, so jail staff without laboratory training can operate them, and the resulting profiles are searched against unsolved cases in close to real time.

Lawmakers created the two-year pilot through Senate Bill 1723 and set aside a little more than $5 million for it in the current state budget. DPS chose the Williamson and Montgomery County sheriff's offices because of existing partnerships and nearby state crime lab staff.

The first year, which began Sept. 1, 2025, went to installing equipment and training; both counties began entering arrestee samples on Oct. 15.

No Collin County agency is part of the pilot. DPS plans to start gathering results after August 2027 and must report to the Legislature by Jan. 1, 2028, when lawmakers can decide whether to pay for more of it or expand it to other counties.

Sources

State of Texas