"Held Up: Texas Crime Victims Waiting for State Money"

INVESTIGATIVE CATEGORY

KXAN-TV
11/02/2022

High turnover, vacancies and a “toxic” environment at the Texas Attorney General’s Office have slowed the release of millions of dollars owed to victims of violent crimes – like sexual assault, drunk driving crashes, robbery and domestic abuse – across Texas, a months-long KXAN investigation found. As a result, survivors and their families are forced to wait months, sometimes years, to rebuild their lives.
The Crime Victims Compensation Fund, which paid out more than $71 million to about 25,600 applicants in 2021, is administered by the Texas Attorney General’s office. The money can be approved for items like relocation expenses for abused spouses, including rent and moving costs. Medical expenses, therapy bills and funerals are also covered.

Investigative Method
KXAN discovered the CVC division has experienced serious staffing issues recently – losing more workers in the first nine months of 2022 than the previous two years combined. In September, 32% of the division’s positions were vacant, according to agency records obtained by KXAN through the Texas Public Information Act. CVC workers also told our team they were struggling, overburdened and stressed by a toxic work environment. All these problems combined have slowed down payments. The CVC division’s own data showed the average number of days for victims to receive their first payment increased from 109 days in September 2021 to 149 in September 2022 – the highest it has been in almost four years.
Our team also reviewed several months of call center reports for the CVC division over the past three years. The records show marked increases in call wait times and calls dropped in September 2022. The office has an internal metric it used to identify excessively slow payments, according to one former case manager who spoke with KXAN on-camera. If a claim takes over 250 days to receive a first payment, it gets flagged. KXAN obtained internal data that showed 50 people had waited at least that long to be paid in August 2022, double the number at the start of the year.
Attrition also hit the CVC division’s call center, increasing phone hold times and dropped calls in 2022. Turnover and staffing shortages within the CVC division have grown worse in the past year, according to records obtained by KXAN, and information provided by four former and current employees who spoke with KXAN on the condition of anonymity. KXAN confirmed the employment of each employee using W2 forms or work badges.
The CVC division lost 25 employees in the first nine months of 2022, which was more than all of 2021 and 2020 combined, payroll records show. As of September, 32% of the division’s positions were vacant, according to lists of division positions. Four employees who spoke with KXAN – three former and one current – echoed the same concerns. Exit surveys and resignation letters obtained by KXAN from the agency show similar complaints by departing employees in the past year.
Over the course of nearly a month, KXAN emailed the attorney general’s office a half dozen times, providing questions and asking to interview an official who could talk about specific problems we discovered and how they could be solved. The agency would only provide a statement saying it “will continue to work around the clock to timely and faithfully serve the victims of crimes in Texas.”

Investigative Impact
Following our investigation, several Texas leaders said they would examine legislative fixes for 2023, including more money for the division overseeing the program. State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, said she was troubled by our findings and concerned about the functioning of the CVC division. Exploring potential legislation, she said she wants to see a simpler, more streamlined application process for crime victims, on top of more staffing at the office to handle calls and process claims.
State Rep. Erin Zwiener, D-Driftwood, described the staffing shortages we discovered as “catastrophic” and said she would be looking at ways to appropriate “narrowly tailored funds just for that program.” Democratic attorney general nominee Rochelle Garza said she watched our reports and that it is “critical” case managers have the resources to do the job – citing a need for increased pay and more staffing.
As part of the state’s interim charges to the Legislature, the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee was tasked with studying the availability of victim services in the state, including things like relocation assistance, which CVC provides. The committee’s chair – State Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth – said her staff was “urgently looking into ways to improve the program to ensure that victims are more fairly compensated than currently allowed by statute” and that KXAN’s “reporting reinforces (that) urgency.” Another member of the committee – State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin – said Texas voters need to hold elected officials accountable for the problems we found.

Innovation & Reaction
KXAN produced a three-part video series for this investigation, embedded with jump links inside an immersive digital story. That piece also contained interactive data elements and resources for crime victims to get help.
Following the series’ launch, we aired and published an update to our initial reporting, as state lawmakers and other candidates for political office weighed in with potential solutions to the problems we revealed. Our investigators also took an in-depth look at those problems in a livestream discussion online, cross-posted by stations in 14 television markets across Texas.
Two statewide public radio programs also highlighted our team’s work, discussing it extensively during their broadcasts. Our reporting – and the topic it surrounded – was also a late focus in the runoff race for Austin mayor, one of the closest votes in the city’s recent election history. KXAN also heard from numerous policy influencers and viewers about what we discovered and the need to reform the system.

Links to Content Online
Main Story / Interactive Elements / Video Series
Chapter 1: ‘Deal With It’
Chapter 2: ‘Retraumatizing’
Chapter 3: ‘Below the Titanic’
Project Update: Texas Leaders React

Other Elements
Texas Public Radio Features KXAN Investigation
KUT’s ‘Texas Standard’ Features KXAN Investigation
KXAN Investigators’ Livestream Discussion on ‘Held Up’ Project
‘Reform Austin’ Public Safety Blog Post on KXAN Project

KXAN Project Highlighted in Austin Mayoral Runoff
LINK ONE
LINK TWO
LINK THREE
LINK FOUR

Project Reaction
Texas Attorney General Nominee Highlights KXAN Investigation on Twitter
State Sen. Beverly Powell Highlights KXAN Investigation on Twitter
Associated Press Reporter Highlights KXAN Investigation on Twitter
Author/TED Speaker Highlights KXAN Investigation in Twitter Thread

Submitted by Josh Hinkle.