The office of the coroner in anderson county, south carolina, seeks funding to cover expenses related obtaining accreditation by the international association of coroners and medical examiners

The Anderson County Office of the Coroner in South Carolina was awarded a $101,460 Project Grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) FY 2023 Strengthening the Medical Examiner-Coroner System Program. The funding will be used to obtain accreditation from the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners for the county's coroner's office. Eligible expenses covered by the grant include salary for an accreditation-related deputy coroner position, accreditation fees, reviewer fees, accreditation-related equipment upgrades, and supplies. This grant aims to enhance public confidence in the coroner's office findings through the achievement of recognized accreditation standards, especially given recent increases in the office's workload and accidental death determinations. The project period is from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2026.

Awarded funds from the BJA FY 2023 strengthening the medical examiner-coroner system program would be used towards eligible program expenses such as: salary for an accreditation-related deputy coroner position; accreditation fees; reviewer fees; accreditation-related equipment upgrades; reviewer fees and; supplies. Located in upstate south carolina, anderson county is a community with an estimated population of 209,581 as of 2022, according to estimates produced by the U.S. Bureau of the census. The entire community is included in the greenville-anderson-mauldin metropolitan statistical area, which has a combined population of approximately one million persons. As will be demonstrated in this application, the local need for accreditation results from an awareness of the necessity of public confidence in the findings of the coroner's office for reasons related to social equity and justice. Other factors, such recent increases in the work rate of the coroner's office far outpacing the community's rate of population growth along with a striking increase in the number of accidental death determinations, place further emphasis on the need for the most accurate and defensible standards that the office can obtain.