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Santa Clara County Medical Examiner provides public window into death, data

By Lisa Fernandez
Published  February 17, 2022 12:19pm PST
San Jose
KTVU FOX 2

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Santa Clara County's Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office this week launched an online dashboard that offers detailed case data as well as categorized and geographical breakdowns of all deaths reviewed by the office since 2018.

It's the only dashboard of its kind in the Bay Area.
 
The dashboard provides basic demographics – age, race, gender, ZIP code – as well as the cause and manner of death with personal information removed. Now, people can quickly see how many people died of drugs, homelessness, car accidents, gunfire, COVID and so on. 
 
 A "John/Jane Doe" page provides case information and sketches for people who remain unidentified so the public can assist in identification.

It took 18 months to compile and Jorden said that the pandemic and public records requests were the inspiration behind the move toward more transparency. 
 
"These case records and analytics provide a unique lens through which to examine different aspects of deaths in Santa Clara County, whether by cause, in a particular geographical area, or within a certain segment of the community," Medical Examiner Dr. Michelle Jorden said in a statement. "In addition to providing the public with nightly updated case information, the analytical tools can help government agencies or nonprofits identify possible trends in target areas for potential intervention opportunities."
 
Jorden said the dashboard serves two main purposes: Providing real-time case data to researchers, law enforcement, journalists and the public; and providing immediate public access to maps and data sets that eliminate the wait-time for a California Public Records Act response.
 
The Medical Examiner-Coroner created the dashboard in partnership with the County of Santa Clara Technology Services and Solutions department. 

 While modeled on dashboards seen in Southern California, the Santa Clara County dashboard was tailored to address needs and case interests specific to the county, Jorden's office said. 
 
The dashboard, along with user instructions, can be found at www.scc-mec.org. The County of Santa Clara open data homepage is at https://data.sccgov.org/.