Request for death records

Hi Kyra,

The Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner (OME) can produce a report of deaths with most of the data points for which you asked. (OME does not release addresses for example.) However, it’s clear you are trying to capture a big picture of deaths caused by COVID-19. I want you to know OME doesn’t investigate every death in Maricopa County and has records for relatively few COVID-19 cases because most people who have died due to the disease have done so at a medical facility or under the care of a doctor. Therefore, the doctor signs the death certificate.

OME specifically takes jurisdiction of deaths that are traumatic, non-natural or unexplained. I would suggest reaching out to Arizona Department of Health Services which is the custodian of death certificate and other data related to deaths. This is the website: https://www.azdhs.gov/licensing/vital-records/index.php
And this is the email to the Joint Information Center: pio@azdhs.gov<mailto:pio@azdhs.gov>

Please reach out if Ron or I can help further.

Fields Moseley
Maricopa County Communications Director
O: 602-506-6453

Hi Kyra,

Attached please find a spreadsheet with the data you requested. Office of the Medical Examiner also included cases from the previous request so any pending cases at that time would be updated.

The Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner takes jurisdiction of death investigations based on A.R.S. 11-593. The spreadsheet attached contains a listing of all cases accepted by this office since January 1, 2020. Information requested is included when available and able to be provided.

Fields Moseley
Maricopa County Communications Director
O: 602-506-6453
C: 602-540-4895

Office of the Medical Examiner of Maricopa County
PRA Office
701 West Jefferson Street
Phoenix, AZ 85007

October 26, 2020

To whom it may concern:

This is a request pursuant to the Arizona Public Records Law. We are requesting all death records dating July 2, 2020, to the date this request is ultimately fulfilled, with the following information for each case:

- case number
- decedent name
- date of death
- location of death
- race
- ethnicity
- age
- gender
- occupation/industry
- whether injury/infection occurred at work
- incident location (street address, city, state, ZIP where injury/infection occurred)
- incident date
- decedent residence (street address, city, state, ZIP)
- cause(s) of death, with complete MOD and COD fields (indicating if COVID related)
- contributing factors
- any other non-exempt information contained in case records

This request is part of an ongoing collaboration involving the Brown Institute for Media Innovation, the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford University, the MuckRock Foundation and partner newsrooms across the country. This request is part of a news-gathering process and is intended for educational, not commercial use.

We request expedited processing to the extent possible. This information is critical to the public's understanding of the coronavirus pandemic and its local impact on public health. Let us know if we can help clarify this request in any way. Please also consider waiving any fees for producing the requested records.

Please provide the data in spreadsheet format as an e-mail attachment.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. We look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days.
--
Sincerely,
Kyra Senese
Brown Institute for Media Innovation
kas2317@columbia.edu<mailto:kas2317@columbia.edu>
630-608-8844