Central dispatch director presents rising 911 call volume and service pressures

Taos County’s central dispatch director presented multi-year 911 call data showing an upward trend in calls for service across the county’s public-safety agencies.

Roberto Saracasa (Central Dispatch) told commissioners that the county dispatch center’s calls-for-service increased from roughly 27,900 in 2017 to about 31,000 in 2024. He said the figure for calls that require an actual dispatch (as opposed to administrative calls) averages about 28,000 a year and roughly 2,300 per month, and that those calls require full dispatch procedures, address verification and coordination with sheriff, EMS and fire.

Saracasa reviewed specific call types that drive workload: EMS calls (about 4,000 per year, ~331 per month), accidents with injury (dozens per month), alarm calls (several hundred per year, both commercial and residential), welfare checks (about 2,100 per year), traffic stops, domestic incidents and high-intensity events such as overdoses and unresponsive subjects. He said some call types generate multiple phone reports per incident (for example, accidents reported by witnesses) and that dispatchers’ work includes repeated radio coordination and follow-up.

Commissioners and chiefs asked about geolocation and breakdowns by area; Saracasa said the dispatch system now supports geo-verified addresses but historical data can be harder to standardize. Several commissioners and public-safety officials praised dispatch staff and urged the county to examine staffing levels; one official said the county likely needs additional dispatchers and more fire/EMS personnel to meet growing demand.

Saracasa said the dispatch presentation and underlying slides would be circulated to commissioners for further review.