In the near future, I will be reintroducing legislation (former HB 1093) to provide Coroners with access to certain records maintained by PennDOT and to JNET, which will help our Coroners to get positive identification of the deceased, locate the Next of Kin to make death notification and to determine if the deceased was an organ and tissue donor.
With the rise of usage of Social Media and the need to know everything immediately, our Coroners are in a race for time to identify the deceased and make death notification to the Next of Kin prior to them finding out on Social Media. Further, Coroners have less than 24 hours from the time of death to do all of these things for the recovered organs and tissue to remain suitable.
JNET is a portal that allows secured access by criminal justice agencies to Commonwealth records provided by JNET’s data partners (PennDOT, Labor and Industry, Human Services, PA Courts, PA State Police, and others).
Unfortunately, Coroners have been denied JNET access or have had access revoked due to questions regarding whether a coroner’s office is a “criminal justice agency”. Additionally, PennDOT’s current policy is that non-criminal justice agencies, in general, are to be only granted access to PA driver photos and detail records. Additional access to driver history, medical information, emergency contact information and vehicle registration information is reserved by PennDOT for criminal justice designated agencies only.
Seeing that both JNET access and access to certain PennDOT records would be an invaluable tool for Coroners when performing their official duties, I am reintroducing this legislation that provides for the following:
- Coroners are to be provided access to JNET
- PennDOT is to provide Coroners with any record maintained by the department, unless prohibited by federal law, which is reasonably necessary to help identify next of kin or aid in a death investigation
- PennDOT is required to update their driver licensing forms to provide drivers with the option to provide next of kin information on their record
I hope you will join me in cosponsoring this important legislation.
Statutes/Laws affected: Printer's No. 0521: 75-1506(a)