WEST TENN. REGIONAL FORENSIC CENTER
- Location: University of Tennessee Health Science Center, 637 Poplar Ave., Memphis, TN 38105
- Phone: (901) 222-4600
- Fax: (901) 222-4645
- More info: See a list of other Tennessee regional forensic offices at http://bit.ly/Regional-Forensics. See information on the Shelby County Medical Examiner’s Office at http://bit.ly/ShelbyME.
The West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center (WTRFC) in Memphis hosted an information and training session on July 29 with investigators from three local law enforcement agencies.
The event was part of a new effort to strengthen relationships with area agencies that handle death cases.
Attendees included detectives from the Bartlett, Collierville, and Millington Police departments, who met with administrators and staff from the WTRFC to talk about procedures and practices to improve efficiency in death investigations, said Sean Lester, director of investigations for the WTRFC.
A similar session was held last month with investigators from the Germantown Police Department, and investigative squads from other law enforcement entities will be invited to the WTRFC in the future.
“Strengthening our relationships with the agencies we work hand in hand with daily ultimately helps us better serve the public at large,” Lester said.
The sessions allow WTRFC staff and law enforcement personnel to talk about best practices in death investigations, specific types of cases, evidence collection and processing, steps for working with family members, and other protocols.
Managed by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) since July 1, 2014, the WTRFC houses the Shelby County Medical Examiner’s Office, which oversees medicolegal death investigation services for 20 counties west of the Tennessee River.
“Each death investigation performed by the WTRFC involves multiple agencies in our communities, including law enforcement,” said Karen Chancellor, MD, chief medical examiner for Shelby County and a professor of pathology at UTHSC. “We are looking forward to training sessions with each police department. These meetings are part of our education outreach to all of the agencies we work with, and allow us to learn from each other.”
Charles Handorf, MD, PhD, administrative director of the WTRFC and a professor of pathology at UTHSC, said the sessions are part of an effort to continue to improve operations of the facility and increase community awareness of the services it provides.
“We’re doing a lot more of this kind of outreach than has been previously done,” he said.
For the future, he envisions possible making off-site presentations and question-and-answer sessions available to people in the community.
The WTRFC was reaccredited in April by the National Association of Medical Examiners.
[Editor’s note, 8-5-15: This version corrects an error in the original printed story, which included one wrong city in the headline.]
