Cortez Communications Center

Communications Supervisor

Lori Johnson

970-565-8441

ljohnson@cortezco.gov

Mission Statement

The Cortez Communications Center strives to enhance the partnership between businesses, citizens, and public safety user agencies by providing responsive and professional services.

The Center

The Cortez Communications Center oversees communications related to public safety and emergency services in Montezuma County through services provided for eleven user agencies including the Cortez Police Department.

The center is equipped with progressive communications technology in order to maintain the User Agencies’ commitment to quality service.  The center has established the ability to Text to 911, although we get limited request for service through that avenue. 

Dispatchers are certified through the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, International (APCO ) as Basic Telecommunicator I and Emergency Medical Dispatchers.  We use APCO for our training officers and instructors as well.

User Agencies

We serve the following agencies:

More Information

Emergency Notification:

In conjunction with the Montezuma County Emergency Manager, the Cortez Police Department, the Montezuma County Sheriff's Office, and the Mancos Marshal's Office provide emergency and public notification through Nixle.com. This service provides emergency alerting through text messages to registered cell phones. Please visit the EVERBRIDGE site to register for this important service.  You must be registered to receive these alerts which include road closures, wildland fire updates, evacuation information, etc.


CORTEZ COMMUNICATIONS CENTER ANNUAL REPORT YEAR 2024

01/06/2025

During the Year of 2024, Cortez Communications Center dispatchers fielded 48,696 user agencies’ calls for service.  This amount shows a decrease of 3,683 calls during the Year of 2023.  

2024 Percentage of Use

2024 Calls for service are itemized by Agency below:

Cortez Police Department             20,802 42.72%

Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office             15,534 31.90%

Mancos Marshall’s Office 2,042    4.19%

Dolores County Sheriff’s Office     510     1.05%

Mesa Verde National Park     107     <1%

Southwest Ambulance Service 4,543    9.33%

Fire Departments 5,158

Cortez              3,876    7.96%

    (CIP – 947)

Dolores   432       <1%

Mancos   466       <1%

Lewis-Arriola     255       <1%

Pleasant View                 129       <1%

All 2024 Phone Calls – Incoming/Outgoing      81,142

911 Calls received    14,529

Recording requests completed     980

Staffing:  Once again, we are closing the year with all the positions filled.  Anna Kennett is the last one hired and will be completing her training during January.  During the year we also hired Devan Steerman and Chelsey Lopez.  Theresa Maple left her position this year in the second quarter.  Devan left prior to completing his training.  Avery Violette left her position during the fall.  So, for 2024, our new dispatchers moving forward are Anna and Chelsey.

Equipment:  Dispatcher began using the Intellicom system in February.  It has been a struggle getting them used to using it, but there is improvement.  

We received training on the Eventide Recorder for quality assessments.  That has been going well.  Dispatchers have expressed appreciation for the feedback.  

We are still working with Lumens to finish the Motorola Vesta project.  Sita A has been signed off and paid through the 911 Authority Board.  The exceptions on the sign off include the Text-to-911 and the “Sorry” message when trying to dial out or transfer through the link with Avaya.  Site B has a long way to go and will not be paid until all items are completed per the 911 Authority Board discussion on December 16, 2024.  

As CCIC Coordinators, we assisted with getting each officer an OSN for use with State Link on their Mobile Data Computers.  Bill Kuhn worked with the State to get the link between our EForce server and the State working.  Officers can now access CBI returns from their units.  There are some issues with EForce to work out to make the system more user friendly on the mobiles.

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