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House Bill 2462 |
House Author: Neave et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-21 |
Senate Sponsor: Paxton et al. |
House Bill 2462 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure and Government Code to revise provisions relating to the reporting and evidence of a sexual assault or other sex offense and to other related law enforcement procedures. The bill removes a law enforcement agency's authority to decline to request a forensic medical examination of the victim of a sexual assault that is reported within the prescribed 120‑hour period under certain circumstances, prescribes the conditions under which an agency may or must request an examination for an assault reported outside of that period, and sets out requirements for documenting whether it made a request for each reported assault. The bill entitles a health care provider, a sexual assault examiner, and a sexual assault nurse examiner that provides a forensic medical examination to a sexual assault survivor to reimbursement by the attorney general for certain associated costs.
House Bill 2462 revises provisions of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Crisis Services Act by requiring the statewide electronic tracking system for evidence collected in relation to sex offenses to include evidence collection kits and other items submitted for laboratory analysis and requiring a health care facility or other appropriate entity to enter certain related information into the system. The bill requires the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to submit an annual report on the number of unanalyzed evidence collection kits in the tracking system to the governor and the legislature and to post the report on its website. The bill requires a law enforcement agency that fails to submit evidence of a sex offense to a public accredited crime laboratory within the required period to provide DPS with written documentation of that failure.