The Department of Public Safety in collaboration with other criminal justice stakeholders has established “Best Practices for Collection, Storage, Preservation, and Retrieval of Biological Evidence”. These best practices relate to the statutory requirements provided under Article 38.43 Code of Criminal Procedure for the storage of biological evidence and illustrate types of biological evidence, manner of collection, considerations for preservation, and disposition.
Law enforcement agencies and other criminal justice entities from counties with a population less than 100,000 can deliver for long-term storage biological evidence or bio-evidence to the Department of Public Safety’s evidence storage facility in Houston. (see also Government Code 411.053)
- Agencies are encouraged to store the evidence locally until conclusion pending trial.
- Send post conviction bio-evidence to DPS for storage or bio-evidence related to an unsolved felony crime to DPS for storage.
Instructions
Please follow the recommendations for packaging biological evidence in the Biological Evidence Best Practices Document or Handbook found at this website. Once packaged, an inventory of the evidence should be attached to a submission form, clearly indicating that the evidence is submitted for storage only. Attach this letter to the outside of the package. Provide the following additional information:
- Name of submitting agency and contact person, phone number, and address
- Agency case number
- Type of Offense
- Date and county of offense
- Name of the suspect or defendant associated with the case, plus date of birth or SID #
- If convicted, cause number, district court number, date of conviction and sentence
Ship or deliver to this address:
Bio-Evidence Storage
DPS Crime Laboratory, Building C
12230 West Road
Houston, TX 77065-4523
Contact Information
For questions, call (281) 517-1380 or email HoustonCrimeLab@dps.texas.gov