Valencia County Regional Emergency Communications Center in Los Lunas Earns Accreditation

The Valencia County Regional Emergency Communications Center in Los Lunas received accreditation from the New Mexico Emergency Communications Professional Standards Accreditation Program, validating the center’s policies, procedures and systems as meeting a minimum standard of excellence. The accreditation, completed Jan. 22, 2026, covers a three-year period from Dec. 10, 2025, through Dec. 9, 2028.

VRECC operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week as the primary dispatch and communications hub for emergency response agencies across Valencia County. The accreditation process reviewed how the center is set up and how it conducts operations, providing an outside benchmark for performance and consistency. "Accreditation is a system that validates our policies, procedures and systems to ensure that we are providing the best service to our community. The accreditation process looks at how we’re set up and how we’re doing things and essentially grades us based on a minimum standard of excellence."

County officials and emergency personnel can point to the accreditation as formal recognition of operational standards that affect everyday public safety functions such as 911 dispatching, interagency radio communications and incident coordination. For residents, the designation signals that Valencia County’s emergency communications functions have been examined against state professional standards and found to meet defined requirements for structure and practice.

Staff at the communications center were singled out for their role in meeting those standards. "This achievement reflects the dedication and professionalism of our staff," Sanchez said. "Our team works every day to provide reliable, high-quality service to the community and our first responders." That emphasis on personnel and procedures underscores the accreditation’s focus on both systems and the people who operate them.

Maintaining the accredited status requires ongoing accountability. VRECC must submit annual reports documenting continued compliance and will undergo a reassessment before the accreditation period ends in December 2028. Those follow-up steps create checkpoints for county leaders and the public to review whether the center continues to meet the standards that earned the initial recognition.

For Valencia County residents, the accreditation provides a measure of assurance that the central hub handling emergency calls and dispatches has been vetted against state guidelines. The next milestones to watch are the annual reports and the reassessment process, which will indicate whether the center sustains the practices that led to accreditation and whether those practices translate into consistent service for the community.