The Fourth of July is always a large affair in Montezuma County, with gatherings and fireworks shows throughout the county. It’s also a busy holiday for law enforcement.
The Cortez Police Department reported the number of calls that the Cortez Communications Center received between midnight July 4 and 3 a.m. July 5 via a crimewatch.net alert created Monday evening.
Calls to dispatchers spiked after gunshots where fired during the fireworks show at Parque de Vida.
The center received 187 computer-aided dispatch calls for service during the 27-hour period. Ninety-two of the callers were incoming 911 calls. Of those 92 calls, 45 calls happened between 8 p.m. on July 4 and midnight July 5. Only three dispatchers were on duty that night.
“A fourth dispatcher was on the property celebrating with her family and jumped on to help out her team without hesitation,” the alert stated.
This same four-hour window produced 55 CAD calls, which included fires, emergency services or medical, traffic accidents and disturbances. The average number of spoken transactions was 405 per dispatcher, the alert said. There was a total of 5,623 spoken transactions between dispatch and public safety agencies.
“Although not recognized as first responders (yet), this team deserves a round of applause for prioritizing the number of calls with professionalism and calm confidence!”
