The Texas government’s Victims Services Unit has announced funding for UT Austin, the City of Austin and dozens of other local governments to improve law enforcement response to crimes against women.
Through September this year, Austin Police recorded 231 rapes, according to the Austin Police Chief’s latest monthly report on crime statistics.
Grant funds administered by the Governor’s Public Safety Office for the current fiscal year, which started in September, include $168,670 for APD’s existing Violence Against Women Investigative Project, and $418,000 for three different UT Austin projects.
The university plans to use the funds to train sexual assault case investigators, among other initiatives.
The Texas Municipal Police Association, based in Austin, is getting a $1 million grant to continue offering an existing training program known as SAFVIC, Sexual Assault Family Violence Investigator Course.
The program consists of three courses: a 24-hour course for law enforcement, an 8-hour human course for telecommunication professionals, and an 8-hour course on human trafficking.
Grants also are being offered to Bexar County for a human trafficking unit, Cedar Park Police for training, Comal and Galveston counties for prosecutors focused on violence against women, Brazos County for a rape crisis center, El Paso and Galveston counties for protective order courts, the City of Bellmead for a domestic violence detective, and Nueces County for monitoring offenders, among others.
Altogether, the state’s Victims Service Unit, which is housed within the governor’s Criminal Justice Division, is administering $11.7 million divided among 87 awards. Not all of the grants go toward law enforcement. Some are for legal advocacy or prosecutors, helping victims to secure protective orders.
Additionally, the Victims Services Unit is administering 42 grants this fiscal year worth $1.6 million, which fund medical providers to ensure that they have equipment and supplies for sexual assault forensic exams.
While the State of Texas administers these grants, the federal government provides much of the funding through its National Violence Against Women Office at the Justice Department. Funding is authorized by the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 and subsequent legislation.
The Austin City Council in August passed a resolution accepting the $168,670 that it is getting from the state government for its investigative project.
Read the full list of Violence Against Women grant recipients:
