Fictional portrayals tend to lump law enforcement and medical examiners into the same team. In reality, while they do communicate, they are separate entities. In Hennepin, Scott and Dakota counties, a police officer usually calls the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, which is a county-run office staffed by 60 people, whenever someone dies outside of a hospital and the cause of death needs to be determined.
The medical examiner will investigate the situation and, as needed, arrange for the body to be taken to their facility in Minnetonka, contact family members, take clear photos of the decedent under bright lights, run a full-body CT scan, perform an autopsy and create a death certificate.
Chief Medical Examiner Andrew Baker said a common misconception about medical examiners is that the majority of their work focuses on homicides. Baker said this is actually closer to about 5% of their cases. In a typical year, about 10,000 deaths are reported to the examiner and about 1,500 will require an autopsy…