QUAY COUNTY, N.M. (KFDA) – The Tucumcari Quay Regional Emergency Communications Center says 911, the non-emergency line and all radios are down in the area.
This is impacting both Quay and Harding counties.
This also includes the Conchas Dam area.
If you need police, fire or EMS, you can call dispatch cell phones at (575) 403-9103. If you call 911, the call will go through to New Mexico State Police.
WASHINGTON, March 20, 2025 – Judges declined Wednesday to pause the Federal Communications Commission’s order giving AT&T’s FirstNet access to portions of the 4.9 GigaHertz band.
“Movants have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending court review,” a three-judge panel from the D.C. Court of Appeals said in a unanimous order.
The National Sheriff’s Association and San Francisco’s public transit agency, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), had asked judges to put the October 2024 order on hold while legal challenges play out.
The order would allow FirstNet to access unassigned parts of the 4.9 GHz band, currently set aside for local public safety users, after the selection of a band manager who would be authorized to enter a sharing agreement with the nationwide first responder network. Other wireless carriers and consumer groups had pushed back against the plan, arguing in part that it would effectively hand billions of dollars to AT&T, which can use dormant FirstNet spectrum as part of its contract.
The 4.9 GHz band has useful characteristics for 5G networks, and the carriers have been starved of additional airwaves since the FCC’s ability to hold spectrum auctions expired in March 2023. AT&T supported the sheriffs and BART had asked for a stay in part because the FCC is asking current 4.9 GHz users, which both groups are, to change their existing geographic licenses in the band to site-specific licenses by June 9, 2025.
The groups argued that wasn’t enough time to marshall the time and manpower necessary for the required engineering studies at every tower site a user operated, and that taking all currently unassigned airwaves off the table interfered with planned expansions.
“This would strand the public’s investment, while also likely putting several state and local public safety entities back near square one in achieving their emergency communication capabilities,” the sheriff’s association wrote in its motion.
BART claimed it would have to delay and potentially restart its ongoing construction of a new train control system.
The FCC argued in a reply brief that the conversion of licenses “will not affect the scope of incumbent licensees’ existing operations.”
As for BART’s case, “the Commission has made clear that it will entertain waiver petitions in ‘special circumstances,’” the FCC argued. “BART, to date, has not asked for a waiver.”
BART had acknowledged the potential for a waiver in its filing, but said it didn’t believe the agency would “meaningfully consider” its concerns.
The order that got the process of allowing FirstNet into the band came down under previous FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, but current Chairman Brendan Carr supported them at the time.
Both the Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure, backed by Verizon and T-Mobile and opposed to the plan, and the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA), led by a former FirstNet executive and in favor of the plan, sued the FCC over its order.
CERCI wants it scrapped, arguing the FirstNet doesn’t have legal authority to operate in bands outside its initial charter, and PSSA wants FirstNet to get access to the airwaves even quicker.
Brandon McClintock has been named executive director of the Jasper County 911 dispatch center by the Jasper County Emergency Services board of directors.
The board said McClintock has a 17-year history with the center and has extensive experience in emergency communication, strategic planning and public safety operations.
“We are thrilled to welcome Brandon into this leadership role,” Greg Dagnan, chair of the Jasper County Emergency Services Board, said in a statement. “His deep understanding of our operations, commitment to excellence, and passion for serving our community make him the ideal choice to guide our emergency communications center into the future.”
As executive director, McClintock will oversee the day-to-day operations of the 911 center.
ST. PAUL — The Minnesota House Public Safety Committee advanced a bill Wednesday that would require local law enforcement to report an individual arrested for a violent offense to ICE and to cooperate in data sharing with federal immigration authorities.
The bill, HF16 , sponsored by Max Rymer, R-North Branch, would require local law enforcement to inform U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, when an undocumented individual is arrested on suspicion of committing a crime of violence”, even if the county elects not to file charges. The bill also makes it illegal for officials to restrict the release of individual immigration status data to federal immigration authorities or to establish any policy that would limit local law enforcement officials from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
“The motive for this bill is to open up a line of communication between local authorities and dealing with dangerous criminals who should not be in our community,” Rymer said in committee on Wednesday, March 12. “Right now, we find ourselves at a moment where you have local officials who are openly defying immigration enforcement and language around it, from the Minneapolis mayor, to the Hennepin County prosecutor.”
Minneapolis and St. Paul in February joined other cities across the country in declaring themselves “ sanctuary cities ” and joining a San Francisco lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. The sanctuary cities have asserted that local law enforcement will not cooperate with federal immigration efforts.
Todd Barnette, Minneapolis Community Safety Commissioner testified in opposition to the bill, arguing it would erode public trust.
“Many people may avoid accessing essential services such as health care, education and social services if they fear that these interactions might expose them to immigration enforcement,” Barnette said in the committee. “This bill will result in decreased safety for Minneapolis and its residents, and it would directly impact the trust that the public and residents have with the city and with our city staff and officers.”
12 counties across Minnesota have also declared themselves “ sanctuary counties ” for immigrants: Anoka, Cottonwood, Dakota, Hennepin, Jackson, Kandiyohi, Lincoln, Lyon, Nobles, Pipestone, Ramsey and Watonwan, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
Opponents of HF16 to limit non-cooperation with federal immigration protest before the bill’s hearing on Thursday, March 13, 2025.
Rep. Elliot Engen, R-Lino Lakes, argued that this bill would enhance public trust.
“When we’re saying that it’s going to break down public safety, that it’s going to break down community trust, it’s only going to improve that, because if those people are in our communities implementing those acts, we don’t want them there,” Engen said. “We don’t want those people free to roam and create more victims of Minnesotans.”
Ben Gleekel with the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, said before the committee on Wednesday that since HF16 says that anyone “arrested” not “convicted” of a violent offense should be reported to federal immigration, the bill would erode due process rights.
Rep. Sandra Feist, DFL-New Brighton, said in committee that this bill perpetuates ideas that immigrants are inherently a “public safety threat.” Feist referenced written testimony by David Beir, Director of Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute, a policy research organization in Washington, D.C, which found that immigrants are 1.2% less likely to commit serious crimes than U.S.-born individuals.
The bill, which drew about 20 protesters outside the hearing room on Wednesday, passed 10-9 along party lines and now moves to the Elections Finance and Government Operations Committee.
Minnesota has an estimated 81,000 non-citizens at risk of deportation according to the Migration Policy Institute. The state’s total immigrant population, documented and undocumented, is just under 500,000
or 9% of the state’s population, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
In emergency situations, people often fixate on the first responders’ arrival time, unaware of the critical steps that make this process quick and effective. A key factor is reliable, secure and uninterrupted public safety communications, which enable responders to coordinate efficiently and save lives.
However, before any response typically happens, one has to call 911. According to recent findings from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), over 80% of 911 calls during emergencies originate from cell phones, highlighting that the majority of initial alerts come from citizens.
This growing reliance on personal devices during emergencies underscores the importance of having connectivity for both citizens and first responders in a building. This redundant approach, which integrates both commercial and public safety frequencies, marks a significant improvement over systems that rely solely on traditional public safety radio frequencies (RF) such as PS 700/800MHz and UHF/VHF using land mobile radio (LMR) technology.
The Evolving Public Safety Communications Landscape
Historically, LMRs have been the primary device for public safety communication. Two-way radios have played a critical role in providing reliable, instant communication in challenging environments. They operate exclusively on dedicated public safety bands such as UHF (380-512 MHz), VHF (138–174 MHz), as well as Public Safety 700 and 800 MHz.
While LMR systems have been upgraded over time to improve reliability and integration with newer communication platforms, they still face limitations. For instance, they often don’t support multimedia such as video or imagery, which could be beneficial in emergencies, and mostly do not work across state borders because the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocates LMR frequencies based on geographic regions. Local factors such as population density, geography and the needs of public safety agencies influence specific frequency allocations in each state or region.
Given these limitations, the federal government, in partnership with AT&T, began work on FirstNet in 2017—the first public-private nationwide public safety network. FirstNet operates on Band 14, a highly coveted swath of spectrum in the 700MHz frequency band used exclusively by responders on FirstNet-ready smartphones. This became one of many accelerants for smartphones overtaking LMR as the primary communication method for first responders.
Verizon and T-Mobile followed suit with their nationwide approach with Frontline and Connecting Heroes, respectively. All three networks provide emergency responders—such as firefighters, police officers, military personnel, National Guard members and even school teachers—with a secure and reliable communication platform, ensuring they can use their phones for emergency communications with priority access over the general public.
Supporting LTE and, in some cases, 5G, these networks offer advanced features like telemetry data, live streaming, GPS tracking and communication beyond traditional two-way push-to-talk radios. For example, during the recent Los Angeles wildfires, the mobile carriers provided first priority to ensure first responders were able to communicate even during peak demand. In some cases, they also deployed portable cell sites and satellite units to maintain connectivity in areas with damaged infrastructure.
However, these nationwide networks are not immune to outages or failures. For example, AT&T’s 2023 outage and Verizon’s 2024 outage disrupted critical communication services for both the public and first responders, revealing vulnerabilities in systems designed to enhance emergency preparedness.
The outages underscore the dangers of relying on a single communication network for public safety, especially during emergencies when uninterrupted communication is most crucial.
The Importance Of Redundancy
Having emergency responder communication enhancement systems (ERCES) in buildings that support LMR public safety bands and the nationwide networks that leverage smartphones establishes powerful redundancy that helps further mitigate downtime in the event of an emergency. When it comes to public safety, more options are always better, so these nationwide networks will always be a complement to traditional public safety and not a replacement. This ideology can be extended to commercial wireless (e.g., cellular connectivity for ordinary citizens), which also plays a vital role in public safety, considering citizens are often the literal first responders in emergencies.
While some may have viewed the creation of nationwide public safety networks as the new way for first responders to communicate, the reality is that it’s just another way. More connectivity options will always be better. When one system faces disruption, the others serve as reliable backups, ensuring continuity and dependability during all emergencies.
“This is just one of the cases, I just thought, ‘man, I told you so,” said Stephen Meyer, who worked at SLC 911 for roughly two years. “Anyone that was involved in the planning in this, could see this coming.”
“For Salt Lake, it made more sense for us to go it alone,” Meyer said. “Well UCA got involved and they threatened the city administration that they were going to come forward and go through the legislative process and basically force us to go with them if we don’t ‘play nice’.”
Meyer said that Salt Lake City didn’t want to risk a loss of funding which resulted in the city moving forward with UCA’s new statewide radio project. Meyer says that he, along with the Salt Lake City police and fire chiefs objected to the move.
“UCA has publicly threatened, publicly behind-the-scenes has threatened agencies with funding, political retribution, legislative action, if you don’t go along with them, they’re going to find a way to make you go along with them,” Meyer said. “For these agencies, especially the smaller ones, they don’t have the tax money coming in, they don’t have the dollars where they can make up for that loss of funding. Salt Lake City would have probably been able to figure it out.”
“I think anyone that would put these political decisions above the brave men and women who are out there protecting us, whether they’re on the fire side or the police side, they should be ashamed the way this project was handed,” Meyer said. “The system frankly shouldn’t have even been launched without better testing being done to make sure that these types of things weren’t going to happen.”
Meyer, who joined SLC 911 in 2021, said he was terminated in 2023 over voicing concerns about various projects brought forward by communications departments and centers, including Salt Lake Valley Emergency Communications Center. “While I was on FMLA, I was terminated for not engaging with the other center,” Meyer said about his termination.
“There are certain risks that we can’t control. We can’t control the bad guys with guns, we can’t control the structure fires, but we can control the radio issue,” Meyer said. “We can control the politics that gets involved and standing in the way of making these things go forward, right?”
Learn about current efforts to continue to protect the 4.9 GHz Band for public safety as well as recent filings, key decisions impacting these efforts, and how you can support PSSA’s initiative to protect the 4.9 GHz band for public safety.
