The latest Department of Public Safety news from The Texas Tribune.
Just as Gov. Rick Perry steps out on the national stage, lawmakers back home are moving to limit public access to detailed records showing how much it’s costing to protect him during his travels. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/PerryRLC_fix.jpg)
A border lawmaker has written Gov. Rick Perry in the hopes of adding another item to the agenda for the current special session. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/_KCA5938.jpg)
A measure eyed by some lawmakers as a means to stop the flow of illicit cash and weapons into Mexico via the Texas border is on life support. Full Story
The Texas Senate approved a measure this evening that would ban texting and sending e-mails and instant messages while driving. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/texting-while-driving-2.jpg)
The Texas Department of Public Safety today announced the start of a program to help poor drivers pay off expensive surcharges and get their driver's licenses back. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/DriversLicenseResponsibility.jpg)
Legislation that would grant the state authority to erect southbound checkpoints near the Texas-Mexico border was successfully revived today after lawmakers attached it as an amendment to a bill concerning record sharing by the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/DPS130TTCMS.jpg)
The state Senate today approved a conference committee report on the voter identification bill that includes changes that would allow citizens to use a new form of documentation to cast their ballots. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/80d6d5e2c22fefab4618cc4b4f4212a7/BD%20INC%20Fraser%202011)
Some of the thousands of untested rape kits lining evidence storage room shelves statewide would finally get testing under a bill the Texas Senate approved today. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/RapeKit.jpg)
You wouldn't know it by the miniscule amount of debate Thursday, but the Senate approved what some lawmakers called the most significant piece of homeland security legislation filed this session, a measure civil liberty groups worry is a major encroachment on civil rights. Full Story
Texas' decision to change one of the drugs used for lethal injections has sparked a lawsuit, calls for federal investigation of the criminal justice department and pleas from the drugmaker not to use its product for executions. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Lethal-Injection_Split.jpg)
No time to follow every twist and turn of the Texas Legislature? We've made it easier for you with our weekly recaps of the action under the dome. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Capsized4.jpg)
Lawmakers at the Capitol today debated eliminating a surcharge on traffic tickets that has been riddled with problems almost since its inception. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/075076a6830e68ba31b1c4255b7442bb/BD%20INC%20Burnam%20005%202010)
The Texas Department of Public Safety is recommending — again — that Texans avoid traveling to Mexico for vacation. It's the second warning in less than five weeks. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TxTrib-DPSdrive-0014.png)
Lives are at stake if the Legislature fails to appropriate the full amount of the Driver Responsibility Program fund, medical professionals said at a Capitol press conference today. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/drivers.jpg)
More than two years after an arsonist torched the Governor's Mansion, the Department of Public Safety still hasn't made any arrests, but investigators say they have identified persons of interest in the case. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/governors_mansion_fire.jpg)
Lawmakers today filed a bill they hope will help drivers, cyclists and pedestrians safely share the roads. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Gil3.jpg)
In case you were planning any trips to violence-ridden Mexico, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety says don't — again. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TxTrib-Paisono01.jpg)
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
Criminal justice in Texas got a fourfold performance review from the Legislative Budget Board today. From incarceration projections to the cost per bed for prisoners, the board broke down the state's public safety performance in cold, hard numbers. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Jail-Crowding.jpg)
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