HRS §52D-4
Police chief acts as coroner when no medical examiner exists
If a county has no medical examiner, the police chief or an authorized officer becomes the coroner for that county. This person gets all the legal powers and must do all the duties of a coroner.
counties
The statute, as written — Ex officio coroner
Where there is no other county medical examiner, the chief of police or any duly authorized subordinate shall be ex officio county coroner. An ex officio county coroner shall have all the powers and perform all the duties of coroner, within that county, as provided by law.
LawTrove is not legal advice. The summary above is a computer-generated restatement — the authoritative text is the official version linked above.