Four new death investigators begin job in Williamson County
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas - In all of Williamson County’s history, there has never been a death investigator.
With the hire of four people this month, all that is changing.
New death investigators in Williamson County
Local perspective:
"We’re already seeing the benefit of them, they’ve been able to work closely on several cases, bounce ideas off of each other," said Rebecca Clemons, the county manager.
Clemons is one of their supervisors as they begin to take over what was once the job of each justice of the peace.
"Whenever you think about that workload for those justices of the peace in addition to their judicial responsibilities, it is a lot," said Clemons. "They were being on-call during the week, they still had to sit out on the bench, they still had to sign warrants, and although they did a fantastic job, we’re just at the population threshold now, and with the workload that we need additional resources."
According to Clemons, one judge reported a 30 percent increase in death investigation calls in just one year.
"They’ve been averaging about 25-30 on-call cases for that week, so there’s a lot of follow-up afterward that’s needed," said Clemons.
Each new death investigator will be on call 24/7 for one week at a time. That is followed by three weeks of office work.
They’ll sign off on death certificates for non-natural deaths like homicides, suicides, and car crashes.
Ultimately, the county believes having death investigators will give the justice of the peace more time to focus on their courtroom and cases.
"Once they are trained and out in the field by themselves, I’m excited because it’s going to give those JP’s extra bandwidth," said Clemons.
Where is the money coming from?
The backstory:
Funding for the roles comes from the latest budget passed by commissioners in August.
"I am so proud of this particular piece of our budget," said Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell in the August commissioners court. "In fact, it may be the most important thing I've been a part of since I've been county judge."
More than $300,000 is set aside in that budget for the death investigators, but it's a price tag worth every penny to the county.
"All the citizens of Williamson County are cared for, and that's from birth to death, and we are very honored and blessed that we can provide this service to our citizens, this service to families, that on some of their worst days, that we have a very responsive, a great partnership between the JP's and the death investigators, a very responsive team that's going to be there for them," said Clemons.
The county is talking about finding a building for a medical examiner's office so that it can conduct its own autopsies.
It could be another few years before anything is finalized.
The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin's Lauren Rangel