Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Death Investigators -

Item 287 #1c

Language
Page 245, line 53, strike "$6,987,695" and insert "$7,182,695".
Page 245, line 53, strike "$7,020,915" and insert "$7,215,915".

Explanation
(This amendment provides funding for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner's Central District office to hire three medical death investigators to provide coverage 24 hours per day, 7 days per week for receiving and screening death investigation calls from local medical examiners and law enforcement officers. The additional positions will restore full accreditation to the Office by the National Association of Medical Examiners. The Office is on probation for staffing deficiencies. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner lost medical death investigator positions during the budget reductions in the 2002-04 biennium. Funding had been approved during the 1998 General Assembly Session for the additional staff, based on recommendations of the Crime Commission in its 1998 "Report on the Need for a Lay Medical Investigator System", to address the shortage of local medical examiners across the state. Loss of these positions has resulted in case delays, complaints from law enforcement, and stress on staff from the lack of backup personnel to cover during vacations and illnesses.)