SANDOVAL COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) – Sandoval County is celebrating what it hopes will be the new hub for hundreds of 911 calls every day. But while they’ve opened the doors on their new dispatch center, some local leaders are claiming it’s a premature move.
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It comes nearly two years after the City of Rio Rancho withdrew from the county’s dispatch operations. While the new center is supposed to take all 911 calls outside of Rio Rancho city limits, county leaders admit that it is not happening quite yet due to continued system glitches. “To be honest, we’re still working through some of them. So while we celebrate today, I want to be transparent, yeah, we do have some challenges and we’re still working through them, but as you heard from the county manager, calls are being answer,d emergencies are being handled and help is getting to those who need it,” said Eric Masteron, Sandoval County Deputy Manager.
Sandoval County is still leaning on the City of Rio Rancho to answer most 911 calls. So far, the new dispatch center can only take emergency calls from landlines and T-Mobile cell phone users. “We should have been routing calls to this center starting at 10 am on July 1st, and I’ve only been routing directly to the center only partially in that time period,” said Wayne Johnson, Sandoval County Manager…