Medical examiner’s office has made great strides SEND LETTERS TO:

The Cook Countymedical examiner’s office is an independent medico- legal agency that has instituted reforms and achieved national recognition in recent years.

In 2016, the office regained full accreditation from the National

letters@ suntimes. com. Please include your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Association of Medical Examiners. The office complies with all requirements, including in investigations, which is staffed 24/ 7 to accept more than 13,000 death notifications a year.

Scene investigations have increased by 90 percent since 2014, and all new investigators must be nationally certified within two years of hire. It is the forensic pathologists, not the investigators, who rely on their medical training to determine cause and manner of death. A scene investigation is not necessary for the nearly 6,000 cases our office handles each year.

Scene investigations are mandatory for certain cases, including those that involve law enforcement. However, an investigator can be dispatched only if there is an actual scene. Your editorial cited the cases of Laquan McDonald, Bettie Jones and Quintonio LeGrier. McDonald died in a hospital a day after he was shot. Regarding LeGrier and Jones, the office was not notified of a police shooting until hours after the incident. Notification of the death of Donald Markham was made after the body was already en route to our office.

Doing a scene investigation for every case would require tripling the investigations staff at a cost of approximately $ 5 million— the same amount that funded the entire office 10 years ago.

We are proud of our accomplishments, the progress we have made since 2012 and our record of fiscal responsibility while providing an essential County service.

Ponni Arunkumar, M. D., chief medical examiner, Cook County