§36-18-2. Duties generally; maintenance, inspection, and copying of reports of investigations of Director of Forensic Sciences; police authority of Director of Forensic Sciences and assistants.

The duties of the director shall be to make such investigations, including any necessary autopsy, to be performed by physicians licensed to practice medicine in Alabama and recognized and trained in forensic medicine and pathology; provided, however, that the director may waive this requirement temporarily whenever a medical examiner vacancy exists which he is seeking to fill. Said investigations of unlawful, suspicious or unnatural deaths and crimes as are ordered by the Governor, the Attorney General, any circuit judge, or any district attorney in the State of Alabama, and the director and his staff shall cooperate with the coroners, sheriffs and other police officers in Alabama in their investigations of crimes and deaths from unlawful, suspicious or unnatural causes. The director shall within his discretion visit the scene of any crime in the state for the purpose of securing evidence for the state. The director shall furnish a certified copy of his report of any investigation that the department conducts to the person or persons who ordered the investigation conducted. The director shall keep the original reports of all investigations that he conducts in his office; provided, that the director shall be authorized to photograph or microphotograph any record, document or photograph two years old or older currently maintained or acquired, received or produced in the future as a result of his duties as prescribed by law. Such photographs, microfilms or prints made therefrom, when duly authenticated, shall have the same force and effect at law as the original record or of a record made by any other legally authorized means and may be offered in like manner and shall be received in evidence in any court where such original record or record made by other legally authorized means could have been so introduced and received. In like manner, reproductions made from such records by photographic or like process, when otherwise in compliance with applicable statutes, rules and regulations, shall be received and treated in any court of this state as fully as would a transcription or reproduction of such records made by any other means or process. All original records, documents, and photographs two years old or older currently maintained and acquired in the future may be destroyed at the discretion of the director, provided photographed or microphotographed reproductions of the destroyed material are maintained. The director shall furnish a certified copy in the form of reproductions from the photographed or microphotographed reports of any investigation that he conducts to the person or persons who ordered the investigation conducted. The director shall keep photographed or microphotographed reproductions of original reports of all investigations that he conducts in his office. Reproductions of such materials shall be public records and shall be open to public inspection at all reasonable times. Any person desiring reproductions of original reports shall be furnished same upon payment of the fee now prescribed by law.

It shall be the further duty of the director to cooperate with the Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries and the State Veterinarian in their investigations of deaths of domestic animals in cases of suspected criminal poisoning of such animals. The director shall perform such other duties as are prescribed by the Governor or the Attorney General of Alabama.

The director and his designated assistants shall exercise the same police authority as any deputy sheriff or state trooper in the State of Alabama.

(Acts 1935, No. 225, p. 616, §2; Acts 1939, No. 440, p. 584, §1; Code 1940, T. 14, §388; Acts 1951, No. 124, p. 353, §1; Acts 1976, No. 498, p. 623, §1; Acts 1980, No. 80-591, p. 945, §1.)