Sex Offender Registration Squad with CAPERS Command Staff

On February 2005, the Texas Attorney General’s Office passed a new legislation requiring all convicted sex offenders since 1970 to submit a DNA sample to the state. But this retroactive law allowed many offenders to slip by because they had not had further contact with law enforcement. Recognizing that this hole in the system would allow sexual assault cold cases to remain unsolved, the Dallas Police Sex Offender Registration (SOR) Squad took initiative to have both their officers and the Sex Offender Apprehension Program (SOAP) detectives properly trained to obtain buccal swab from offenders  in order to submit to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

In the summer of 2013, SOAP conducted a city-wide DNA sweep to collect DNA samples from sex offenders who were not already listed in the CODIS DNA Database. Since then, DPD SOR and SOAP continues to screen all reporting sex offenders to keep the CODIS system updated.

On September 16, 2014, a DNA sample collected by the DPD SOR Squad matched an unknown DNA profile collected from a 2008 unsolved sexual assault case investigated by the Ft. Worth Police Department. This was the first CODIS match resulting from their collection efforts.

On October 27, 2014, as a result of their efforts, the Dallas Police Sex Offender Registration Squad was presented with a Certificate of Recognition from the Texas Department of Public Safety Crimes Laboratory Service for ensuring sex offender compliance and providing a vital role in the continued success of the Texas DPS program. The Dallas Police Department is the largest police department in the state working directly with the CODIS lab on sex offender DNA. The Dallas Police Sex Offender Registration Squad is the first SOR squad to be honored by CODIS for its collection efforts.