PORT ANGELES — Clallam County’s Coroner’s Office is taking steps toward securing its own county-operated morgue. It would end years of reliance on a local funeral home for decedent storage.
At a work session Monday, Deputy Coroner Caroline Shoup told County Commissioners the current arrangement with a private funeral home makes it impossible for the county to meet key national accreditation standards.
Shoup says the office must comply with requirements from the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners and the National Association of Medical Examiners, which outline chain-of-custody, security, and facility standards that the county cannot fulfill under its current setup.
“We’re running into some issues with our relationship with the funeral home. We’re just not going to be able to meet certain standards that are required of us under the current arrangement, so we really need to secure our own county-operated morgue,” siad Shoup.
To do that, the county has applied for a $100,000 federal grant through the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Strengthening the Medical Examiner–Coroner System Program to fund the project. According to the application documents, the money would purchase and install a walk-in morgue cooler, storage racks, and autopsy equipment, while converting a recently acquired residential building—located on property slated for the county’s future Emergency Operations Center—into a secure and dedicated Coroner’s Office facility
If the grant is approved, renovations could begin next year, bringing the Coroner’s Office one step closer to national accreditation and full operational independence.