Ad
Dispatch Dispute: Municipal chiefs updated in PSECC board meeting
Published
Editor’s note: This is the third and final part in a series on the separation of dispatch resources between the city of Rio Rancho and Sandoval County.
It’s been a war of words between local governments over an important community issue: dispatch.
Sandoval County administration announced in October that the new Public Safety Emergency Communications Center of Sandoval County was taking all 911 calls. Prior to that, the city of Rio Rancho was taking those calls despite the county stating it was operational July 1. The delay prompted an argument between the two government agencies.
But the county and city are not the only entities impacted by the dispatch change.
Operations board update
Respective chiefs from Sandoval County’s smaller municipalities attended a Nov. 18 PSECC board meeting. At the meeting, Yvonne Fox, county director of dispatch, provided an update on the dispatch situation. One update was Fox’s stepping into the official capacity of director from interim director. The assistant director position is vacant at this time, according to Deputy County Manager Eric Masterson.
Fox stated the center was not yet fully staffed but that all shifts are being covered with dispatchers working about 16-hour shifts.
“But we are in the process of hiring for new applicants. To help facilitate the staffing needs, we also have three part-time employees,” she said.
She added that new staff are going through the training process that entails six months to a year of live training. This means as calls are being handled, dispatchers are training on radios.
The delay in 911 services also took focus away from hiring and training, according to Fox.
Ad
Fox also talked about the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), a database that keeps information about warrants, protection orders and other pertinent information available to police officers.
“When we got NCIC, we had to retain and do a chain of custody for all the warrants from Rio Rancho, which that’s just customary; that’s not anything unusual,” she said. “But what happened in this transition is the state and the FBI decided to audit every agency in the state on how it was being processed, and they decided to change their procedure on how that was going to be done, so our procedures had to change.”
The procedure change also affected the courts, according to Fox.
“They were used to doing things a certain way for years. The state found that it wasn’t the way that it was supposed to be done,” she said.
She requested “patience” with NCIC because of the state’s changes.
Assistant Director Amber Cantril said that 75% of the warrants they received from Rio Rancho were sent back.
"If we can't get the FBI to allow us to do a dump of transferring it over, they may not approve that ... we're asking for that approval because of the large amount, as the center, we're going to have to manually go in and clear every single one of those warrants and hand it back to the agencies. Then, they'll have to reissue those warrants," Fox said.
She added the courts are not set up to handle that procedure.
For the time being, the priority is to make sure the center is fully staffed. Fox said a lot of that is dependent on training time.
Chiefs
Corrales Fire Chief Anthony Martinez, chair of the PSECC, asked about common complaints the center was receiving.
Cantril said the complaints have subsided but the main concern has been delayed responses.
"Once we increase our staffing levels, our response time will be quicker because we're able to process the call faster versus trying to put them on hold and talk on the radio," she said.
She said field confidence in operations has improved as well.
Masterson added that people are letting the county know if there are issues right away. Cantril agreed, saying any of the agencies the center serves can reach out at any time.
A common concern among the chiefs was about NCIC and more specifically the Originating Agency Identifier, a unique code used in U.S. criminal justice systems to identify law enforcement and other agencies for data exchange.
Cantril said that when a warrant is issued, it's issued by the law enforcement agency. The courts were not identifying the issuing agency on the warrants, she added. She said the state is requiring that the officer-issued warrant needs to be housed by the respective dispatch center.
Courts can reach out to the New Mexico Department of Public Safety if they need further instruction, she added. She said they do not have control of what is on the form itself, just what they can enter into the system.
If an agency doesn't have an ORI, it goes under the PSECC's, she said.
Bernalillo Fire Chief AJ Bonnett acknowledged the difficulty dispatchers are put in by being in that capacity.
"We realize how difficult it is to be on the other end of a phone and you can't jump into action, you just have to hear and learn the scene through the phone and you can't do anything about it," he said.
He also suggested that in district units be dispatched first before others. Martinez said that was the point of future sub-committees, which he requested earlier in the conversation.
Another problem was "low modulation", which means it was hard to hear between agencies.
An ongoing issue with all agencies, according to comments during the meeting, is radios. However, a few of the chiefs stated radios have been an issue for years, not necessarily related to the dispatch change itself.
In an email, Corrales Police Chief Victor Mangiacapra said the transition has been relatively seamless for field officers in the village “who have had consistent public safety radio and telephone communications, and we haven’t been advised of any citizens encountering difficulty requesting police or fire assistance in the village,” he said.
But Mangiacapra admitted that any time a project of that magnitude happens, “operational challenges have been encountered and are being diligently addressed.”
Despite the challenges, he was grateful to the county and the city of Rio Rancho.
“We look forward to the Sandoval County Public Safety Emergency Communications Center (PSECC) operating independently in the near future and are thankful for the continued support from the City of Rio Rancho as we work toward the common goal of keeping our communities safe,” he said.
Other agencies did not respond to requests for comment.
According to the county, a previous board meeting involved more concern from the chiefs, prior to the center's official ability to take 9-1-1 calls.
Radio consoles
In a previous article, County Manager Wayne Johnson said the county was providing radio consoles to Rio Rancho.
“Collaboration is essential within the public safety community. Rio Rancho delivered help to us when we needed it, just as we continue to provide them with county radio consoles until their new equipment arrives,” Johnson said when the 911 capabilities became fully operational for the county.
Deputy City Manager Peter Wells disputed this quote, calling it inaccurate, and requested a correction.
"First, which is an issue/city-county dispute point for another day if you have an interest, the county is not continuing to provide 'county' consoles to the city until the new city equipment arrives. The city’s consoles have all arrived and did so a while ago. Only a few backup consoles remain needing to have final programming via a vendor, which was delayed because of all the county’s delays. Beginning in June, and over the course of the past few months, all of the consoles the county is referring to moved from Rio Rancho dispatch to the new county dispatch," Wells wrote Oct. 23.
The county, in response, stated they were not aware consoles were no longer needed and in turn said they would reach out to the city to pick them up.
Future relationship
Each entity's views on the relationship differed. In respective interviews Sept. 24, both the city and county were asked their opinion of the current and future relationship between the governments.
Wells stated he has been part of the city for years and worked with many county managers.
"There was a good working relationship, and quite frankly, Gabe (Salgado) and Jolene (Madrid) talked about this, but there were never any issues with the old (joint powers agreement) board. The old agreement, I am sure there were hiccups here and there, but nothing like this," he said.
He said the county leadership has been "strange." He alleged that the county "overexerted itself and its authority, taking funding when they weren't the fiscal agent."
He added that the JPA board would just adhere to whatever the county advocated for. When the other municipalities didn't join the city's argument, according to Wells, the city had the "only option" of leaving the JPA.
"Ultimately, it came to the point where (the JPA) was not appropriate. What's happening in city of Rio Rancho, it was not equitable. Rules weren't being followed," he said.
But the main problem Wells had was that the county wasn't ready when they said they would be and wasn't transparent about the delay in services.
Johnson stated that the claim that the county lacks transparency on the matter is "laughable."
He added that one of the kickoff meetings the county had with Lumen and Motorola, the companies hired to get calls online for the new dispatch, was held at the Rio Rancho Police Department.
"We have nothing to hide. We are trying everything we can to ensure the safety of citizens and the responders that are out there. Period," he said.
Johnson added that he would be "more than happy to sit down with the city of Rio Rancho at any time and talk about their claims, our disagreements, whatever they like."
He still thanked the city for handling calls while the county worked to get issues addressed. He and others in meetings regarding the dispatch center continue to thank the city.
