A bill re-introduced for the upcoming Kentucky General Assembly directs the state medical examiner to include statistics regarding arrest-related deaths or deaths in custody in its annual report.
Senator Reginald Thomas’ bill requires a post-mortem examination of anyone who dies during arrest or en route to be incarcerated. Those deaths must also be reported to the state.
State Medical Examiner Dr. Tracey Corey said her office is already tracking this information voluntarily.
“We haven’t routinely subdivided out and kept specific statistics on deaths in custody. Because of the issues that have been in the press over the past couple of years and because of Senator Thomas’s interest in keeping that data, we started keeping that data specifically out as a separate category as well,” Corey said.
As a public health office, Corey said it’s important to have information that helps identify what’s causing deaths in Kentucky .
“And so by subcategorizing these, we’ll be able to provide data to law enforcement, to the legislature, and to other groups that are interested in learning where these deaths are occurring and what the most common features of them are,” Corey said.
Corey said she cannot make an official statement but she has not noticed any uptick in deaths related to custody or arrest since tracking the information, though there has been a rise in heroin related deaths since three years ago.
Thomas said in a statement that he believes the bill has a better chance of passing this year with recent advancements in policing, such as officers wearing body cameras. The 2016 Legislative Session begins in January.
