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Freedom of information advocates are calling a new policy of the Bexar County medical examiner an "overreaching" interpretation of a new state law and say it is "shutting down the flow" of public information.
The new policy, at best, delays the public identification of fatalities—victims of fires, traffic accidents, and homicides among them.
The new state law is intended to protect only the identifies of the next of kin of the direct victims of deadly incidents.
But the office of the local medical examiner (ME) now requires journalists to provide more detailed information in advance for the office to search their database for details surrounding the direct victim of a deadly incident.
In the past, often a journalist would only need provide the ME a date, time, and location of an incident to gather details about a victim and cause of death to publish or broadcast in a story.
The following message was posted at the ME's website:
"Effective immediately, the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office is altering release of information procedures in order to comply with recently enrolled House Bill 4490. As part of these changes, we will only be able to search by name, date of birth or ME case number. We ask for your understanding with these changes and apologize for any inconvenience that it may cause.
The executive director of the Texas Freedom of Information Foundation—Kelley Shannon—said the medical examiner's interpretation of the new state law goes too far.
"The intent of this law was to protect the next of kin and that's been made clear, so that they can't be contacted by marketing agencies or businesses," Shannon said.
Shannon said there are reasons the public could benefit from the timely release of information concerning a victim.
"I think the public does gain a lot from knowing more information and not less" she said.
And as an example, she cited preventable death trends that could be occurring in the San Antonio area.
"If there's a fatality involving a young person, you know, what were the circumstances?" Shannon said. "What can we do, you know, to prevent these things in the future and aim some messaging at that age group?"
A public information officer for the county this week told Texas Public Radio that Chief Medical Examiner—Dr. Kimberley Molina—would not be made available for media interviews over the new policy.
