Georgetown, Texas – KXAN – Valerie Alvarez was six months old. She is one of the four new investigators of the death that was rented by Williamson Province to help the justice of peace judges determine the cause of death and the motives of the Court of Conciliation.
“We are a kind of eyes and ears for judges,” Alvarez said. “I will collect and get any information I can provide to the justice of peace, and in this way they can make the best decision to boycott us.”
Alvarez explained that this includes filtering calls that come from the application of the law or hospitals, then determine the following steps.
The budget for boycotting positions was placed last year as a solution to the growing population of the population and complex deaths because it has no own medical examiner.
“You can expect calls at all times,” Alvarez said. “We will attend the viewer at times. Then we transfer all the information to our peace judges.”
Gap
Death investigators are now every work for one of the four in the province Peace judges To help make death calls, move to the crime scene, prepare reports – including medical records requests – and speak to families and enforce the law. Before they got jobs – all of this fell to the judges at the top of listening cases in their halls.
“To be able to provide individuals who have experience to help them and reduce this load slightly, I think, unable to boycott like this,” Alvarez explained.
Judges judge everything from murders to death from the natural causes, and ultimately sign death certificates. If the case needs an additional investigation, they ask to dissect the body from the local and private forensic company – or Al -Faith Medical Office in Travis Province.
“It is a very in -depth investigation that is conducted, so we are able to provide answers to these families and those citizens who have one of the worst days of their lives whenever they lose a member of his family,” he said. Provincial Director Rebecca CleimmonsWho oversees the unit of the investigating investigation of death.
Cleimmons added that what makes the team unique is that they all have criminal experience – about 30 years combined – and worked in the medical examiner office.
Cleimmons also explained that the employment of death investigators embodies a gap until the province creates its medical examiner. This is what the judges have long prompted while dealing with the growing court cage and complex death cases.
Alvarez works with peace justice Angela Williams In PrecINCT 2. The two are in a full week invitation every month and cover the entire province. Alvarez explained in a crowded week, who had up to 35 deaths. The boycott expected an increase of about 25 % in death investigations this year – about 1500 investigations.
Despite the additional employees, the judges participated in a joint statement with KXan that “the time requires peace judges related to the death investigation issues that have decreased in the way he originally visualized.”
The referees wrote in their statement: “With the employees of the last death in January 2025, we were hoping to see a meaningful decrease at a time when judges had to dedicate the duties related to the investigation.” “The intention was to allow us more time to focus on our court cows, including civil and criminal cases, absent from absenteeism, administrative access, all of which are necessary to preserve the rule of law in our societies. Unfortunately, this goal has not been achieved.”
“They are still committed to working cooperatively with the province’s leadership to follow up on a long -term sustainable model that guarantees both judicial efficiency and the highest standards of medical investigation,” the referees said.
The referees of KXAN investigators explained that the model can include the medical examination office or the restructuring of the death investigator. The province said it is working through the challenges that appear by continuing to hold talks and meetings with judges and judges.
“I think it is at any time when you start a new program or process, there is a lot of training at the forefront. You are trying to know the forms and workflow and get to know law enforcement agencies and their hospitals, funeral houses and other groups of that. Thus, there will be increasing there, in my opinion, they are added to more flows. With the completion of training and the boycott investigators learn better.
The boycott is looking for the future
Cleimmons said that her hope is that death investigators would be a model for other provinces in a similar position with the increasing population. Alvarez said it is an educational process for death investigators.
“A lot of learning curve came from learning the peace system and how they do things and integrate what we do and collect them together,” Alvarez explained. “We learn a lot about each other and the roles we can play to better serve our societies.”
The province has already been imprisoned at a site in North Austin for the medical examiner office. Cleimmons said he is still in the early stages and that Court of Commissioners It has not yet been discussed any time schedules.
Texas Law The provinces are required to establish the medical examiner office when the population reaches 2.5 million, but the provincial commissioners court may create one at any time.
The efforts were underway during the 2025 legislative session to create more medical examinations after the KXAN “A Boodbone Creek” achieved that only 14 out of 254 provinces have medical examinations.
Parliament’s deputy, D-Dallas, is planning to continue to pressure for a temporary study to consider how Texas attracts more medical examinations during the time when the country is deficient.
“We just need more people who specialize in this work, and create a totally logical incentive program,” Lasia previously said KXan.