Section 557. Chief medical examiner

(a) There shall be in the department an
  independent office of chief medical examiner, the head of which shall be
  the chief medical examiner, who shall be appointed by the mayor from the
  classified  civil  service  and  be  a  doctor of medicine and a skilled
  pathologist and microscopist. The mayor may  remove  the  chief  medical
  examiner  upon  filing  in  the  office  of the commissioner of citywide
  administrative services and serving upon the chief medical examiner  his
  or  her  reasons  therefor  and  allowing such officer an opportunity of
  making a public explanation.
    (b) The commissioner with respect  to  the  office  of  chief  medical
  examiner shall exercise the powers and duties set forth in paragraph one
  of subdivision a of section five hundred fifty-five of this chapter, but
  shall  not  interfere with the performance by the chief medical examiner
  or his or her  office  of  the  powers  and  duties  prescribed  by  the
  provisions of this section or any other law.
    (c)  The  chief  medical  examiner  may appoint and remove such deputy
  chief medical examiners, medical examiners, medical  investigators,  lay
  medical   investigators,  scientific  experts  and  other  officers  and
  employees as may be provided for in the budget. The deputy chief medical
  examiners  and  medical  examiners  shall   possess   the   same   basic
  qualifications  as the chief medical examiner. The medical investigators
  shall be physicians duly licensed to practice medicine in the  state  of
  New  York  and  shall  possess  such additional qualifications as may be
  required by the department of citywide administrative services.
    (d) The office shall be kept open every day  in  the  year,  including
  Sundays  and  legal  holidays,  with  a clerk in attendance at all times
  during the day and night.
    (e) The chief medical examiner or his or her designee shall have power
  to require the attendance and take testimony under oath of such  persons
  as  he or she may deem necessary and to require the production of books,
  accounts, papers and other evidence relative to any  matter  within  the
  jurisdiction of the office.
    (f)  (1)  The chief medical examiner shall have such powers and duties
  as may be provided by law in respect to  bodies  of  person  dying  from
  criminal  violence,  by  accident, by suicide, suddenly when in apparent
  health, when unattended by a physician, in a correctional facility or in
  any suspicious or  unusual  manner  or  where  an  application  is  made
  pursuant to law for a permit to cremate a body of a person.
    (2) The chief medical examiner shall perform the functions of the city
  mortuary  and  related  functions, including the removal, transportation
  and disposal of unclaimed or unidentified human remains and the  remains
  of those individuals who have died outside of a medical institution.
    (3)  The  chief  medical examiner may, to the extent permitted by law,
  provide  forensic  and  related  testing  and  analysis,  and  ancillary
  services, in furtherance of investigations concerning persons both alive
  and  deceased,  including  but  not  limited  to:  performing autopsies;
  performing deoxyribonucleic  acid  (DNA)  testing  and  other  forms  of
  genetic   testing   and   analysis;  obtaining  samples  and  exemplars;
  performing pathology, histology and toxicology testing and analysis; and
  determining the cause or manner of injuries and/or death.
    (4) Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of this section and  in
  addition  to any other powers and duties, the chief medical examiner may
  engage in health research in conjunction with the department  consistent
  with paragraph two of subdivision d of section five hundred fifty six of
  this chapter.
    (g) The chief medical examiner shall keep full and complete records in
  such  form  as  may be provided by law. The chief medical examiner shall
  promptly deliver to the appropriate  district  attorney  copies  of  all

  records relating to every death as to which there is, in the judgment of
  the  medical  examiner  in  charge,  any indication of criminality. Such
  records shall not be open to public inspection.