Font Resize"I can't get a hold of my dispatchers ... would you send out AirCare to our location," state police officer James Rempe asked San Juan County dispatchers over the radio after switching to the local channel. "I need AirCare, notify my ... dispatch I have two down."
The incident occurred Aug. 22 on a remote part of the Navajo Nation near Upper Fruitland, where a fleeing truck crashed after a 45-minute drunken-driving pursuit.
While the officer tried to arrest the three passengers of the vehicle, a fight broke out. Rempe fired three shots at the unarmed men, killing Cordell Dobey, 25, and critically injuring Jerry Dobey, 21. The third man, 20-year-old Alden Blackhat, was uninjured and taken into custody.
Two backup state police units arrived after the fatal shooting occurred.
The inability to communicate with state police radio dispatch, located more than 100 miles away in Gallup, underscores miscommunication concerns San Juan County law enforcement officials expressed when New Mexico State Police severed ties with the local radio network in July. The network dispatches all other police, fire and emergency services in the county.
A bad signal
Large portions of the state police radio network across the county broadcast a signal too weak for the Gallup station to pick up, said San Juan County Communications Authority Director Daryl Branson.
"The radio transmission is too weak (and) the state police officers tend to have difficulty connecting with their own communication in Gallup because of that," Branson said. "That probably contributed to the incident that happened (Aug. 22)."
But New Mexico State Police officials based in Santa Fe said communication issues did not play a role in the outcome of the DWI chase or the fatal shooting.
"I don't know if there's any problems with communication at all," said state police Lt. Eric Garcia. "There's always the possibility of poor communication between dispatch, but I'm not aware of any myself."
State police in April announced plans to withdraw from the San Juan County dispatch center, and said the change was made to increase connectivity between the police agency's officers and commanders statewide. At that time, the Farmington state police district was the only other office using a local dispatch channel.
Prior to the move, however, local state police personnel were aware of the inconsistent radio signal in San Juan County, the county dispatch director said.
"It was well known among (state) officers and the command staff in the Farmington area that the state police's radio system in this area is inferior to the countywide radio system that's used by the other agencies."
Miscommunication
Dispatchers monitoring the state police radio channel the night of the fatal incident overheard the pursuit and contacted Gallup to see if assistance was needed.
While state police officers pursued a suspected drunken driver, who was swerving lanes and nearly crashed head-on with another vehicle, dispatchers at the San Juan Communication Authority were given inaccurate information from state police dispatch and told the chase was for an ignored stop sign.
Because a stop sign violation is a non-threatening offense, state law prohibits chasing and no backup was sent.
"If we would have known it was a DWI displaying dangerous driving behavior, we would have absolutely gotten involved in it," said San Juan County Sheriff Bob Melton. "Had they still been in our communication center, this would have been a non-issue because the dispatchers working the different channels are sitting right next to each other."
If the incident occurred before July 2008, when state police shared the local radio channel, nearby sheriff's officers would have overheard the indications of drunken driving during the pursuit and assisted, Melton said.
"If they need backup, there's a greater chance that there's going to be a sheriff's deputy than another state police officer," Branson said. "Before, it was more or less automatic because the units would hear each other over the radio and volunteer to back each other up."
Before the radio pull-out, state police officials agreed to negotiate a compromise communication plan. The drafted proposal — which would allow state police to switch back to the local channel during critical incidents, such as pursuits — never came to fruition, Melton said.
"The level of agreement that we would have liked to enter into with state police allowed critical incidents to be managed on our local channel, so all local law enforcement could have been involved," Melton said. "That did not happen. ... That was not a consideration in the agreement that was ultimately approved by state police."
James Monteleone:
