Police chief outlines impacts of regional central-dispatch upgrade and space concerns at Tucumcari PD

Tucumcari’s police chief described to the City Commission how a planned upgrade to regional central dispatch would affect the police department’s workspace, equipment and budgeting and urged careful review of costs and backup arrangements.

The chief said central dispatch handles calls and computer-aided dispatch (CAD) traffic for multiple agencies and is currently the city’s largest user of that service. “Chippenkary as a city, is by far the biggest user of that service…they dispatch for multiple agencies,” the police chief said, explaining that dispatch also supports mobile data terminals, NCIC access for officers, and after-hours services for streets and parks.

The chief provided cost figures for the service as discussed in the meeting: “It was, like, 107. For the first year, it would be 70,000, and after that, it would be a $104,220,” and he said the city should consider whether existing emergency-tax receipts already offset some costs.

He also described operational and space impacts if dispatch relocates out of the police building. Dispatch currently occupies administrative office space and equipment racks that reduce the department’s usable footprint. The chief said moving dispatch could free wiring and rooms to create a proper patrol room, restore a training room, return locker-room space for officers, and reallocate storage and evidence areas. He said the current arrangement forces patrol officers to use locker-room space for booking paperwork and limits training and surveillance capacity.

The chief urged the commission to advocate for a backup arrangement and said that, while upgrades should add modern equipment, the city should seek to retain a fallback if the regional system fails: “If we can advocate to see if they can keep that central dispatch with the way it is because they're obviously gonna put new equipment on it…Can we leave this the way it is at our central dispatch as a backup in case something should happen,” he said.

No formal action on central dispatch funding or relocation is recorded in the provided transcript excerpt; the discussion centered on costs, operational impacts, and potential benefits to police operations if dispatch moves out of PD space.

Ending: The chief asked the commission to consider the space implications and seek assurances about backups, equipment, and funding before any relocation or service-contract commitments are finalized.