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Department of Public Safety

The latest Department of Public Safety news from The Texas Tribune.

  • Testing the Evidence

    By Brandi Grissom

    In police departments across Texas, tens of thousands of rape kits have been sitting on the shelves of property storage rooms for years — thanks to strained budgets, overworked crime labs and a law enforcement philosophy that such kits are primarily useful as evidence if a stranger committed the assault. Victims’ rights advocates and some lawmakers say they'll work to pass legislation this year to take that evidence out of storage and create a DNA database that would help track rapists and perhaps even identify those who have been wrongly convicted. "I think we owe it to every person who has been raped," says state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth. Full Story 

    A sexual assault evidence collection kit
    Credit: Todd Wiseman

  • TribBlog: DPS Giving Drivers a Break

    By Brandi Grissom

    Some of the 1.2 million Texas drivers whose licenses have been suspended because they failed to pay expensive traffic ticket surcharges can catch a big break right now from the Department of Public Safety. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    The Trib staff on the sweeping cuts in the proposed House budget, Grissom on what's lost and not found at the Department of Public Safety, Galbraith on the wind power conundrum, Hamilton on higher ed's pessimistic budget outlook, Stiles and Swicegood debut an incredibly useful bill tracker app, Ramsey interviews Rick Perry on the cusp of his second decade as governor, Aguilar on a Mexican journalist's quest for asylum in the U.S., Ramshaw on life expectancy along the border, M. Smith on the obstacles school districts face in laying off teachers and yours truly talks gambling and the Rainy Day Fund with state Rep. Jim Pitts: The best of our best from January 17 to 21, 2011. Full Story 

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  • How Do You Lose a 24-Foot Boat?

    By Brandi Grissom

    Or a $74,000 piece of radio equipment? Or more than 150 handguns and rifles? Those are just a few of the nearly 1,500 items that the Texas Department of Public Safety reported stolen or lost in the last decade. Some of the assets might still be in the possession of DPS or possibly were sold, but the agency’s inventory system is so poor that it's hard to know what's actually missing. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Capitol Insecurity

    By Ross Ramsey

    When Andrew Cuomo took office as governor of New York earlier this month, he ordered the removal of the security barricades limiting access to his state’s Capitol. “This Capitol has become a physical metaphor for the isolation and alienation of our people,” he said in his inauguration speech. He could easily have been talking about Texas. Full Story 

    Capitol visitors pass through metal detectors.
    Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller

  • Perry Pressed on "Sanctuary Cities"

    By Elise Hu

    Gov. Rick Perry wants an end to "sanctuary cities," but in a press conference Wednesday morning, he didn't name specific cities he wants Texas lawmakers to target. Nor did he address whether the Department of Public Safety's policy of state troopers not inquiring about the immigration status of people they pull over should be changed. Full Story 

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  • The General at War

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Rick Perry might be the state official most publicly doing battle with the the federal government, but Greg Abbott is quietly leading the charge on behalf of Texas. The Attorney General, who was just sworn into his third term in office, talked recently with Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune. Full Story 

    Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott
    Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera

  • TribBlog: DPS Says Capitol Is Secure; Lawmakers Wary

    By Andrew Weber

    Police at the Capitol say the state's lawmakers and their guests will be safe under the pink dome as the 82nd Legislature gets underway tomorrow. But lawmakers are encouraging vigilance after the Arizona shooting this weekend that left a congresswoman critically injured and 14 others dead. Full Story 

    State troopers denying visitor entrance to the Capitol due to a bomb threat on June 18, 2010.
    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • Blood Sport

    By Brandi Grissom

    Cockfighting in Texas has been illegal for decades, but a lengthy Humane Society investigation uncovered more than a dozen active rings throughout the state. What's not illegal is raising fighting game cocks, attending a cockfight or possessing paraphernalia related to cock fights — such as gaffs, the razor blades owners strap to the birds' legs to make them even more lethal. Animal rights activists came close in the last legislative session to getting such activities criminalized, which they say is critical to putting an end to cockfighting. They plan to try again next year. Full Story 

    A rooster that was euthanized because it was severely injured during a forced fight at a southeast Dallas cockfighting ring that police busted Oct. 18.
    Credit: Brandi Grissom