Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo says the county has a partial solution to the backup in its crime lab. It’s a program that will allow University of Rochester doctoral residents to serve their fellowship in the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Dinolfo says it will help fill a critical need for forensic pathologists to examine evidence in criminal cases. It’s a need shared by ME’s offices and forensic labs nationwide.
The program begins in 2019, working closely with the University of Rochester’s Department of Pathology and Laboratory Services. United States Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer helped set the program up as a national model…that if it works, will be recommended to other communities.
Senator Schumer says one reason he backed the idea was because the additional pathologists will be a big help in fighting the tide of opioid drug addiction across Upstate New York.
Dinolfo also says the county has filled one of two vacant pathologist positions in the crime lab, and will fill the other a year from now.