Sandoval County held a ribbon-cutting ceremony July 24 to celebrate its new dispatch center, even as the facility remains unable to independently handle approximately 85% of 911 calls from the county’s estimated 42,000 non-Rio Rancho residents.
The Public Safety Emergency Communications Center of Sandoval County can only directly receive approximately 15% of 911 calls—those from landlines, T-Mobile customers and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services within the county’s jurisdiction. The remaining 85% of calls, including all wireless 911 calls, must be routed through Rio Rancho’s system, and involve Rio Rancho dispatch personnel creating operational burdens and forcing the city to pay overtime to staff who handle the overflow.
Three weeks after a July 1 press release announced the center as “fully operational,” Rio Rancho continues to serve as the primary answering point for most county emergency calls, according to city officials…