VRECC attains its state accreditation

LOS LUNAS- There’s a lot happening in Valencia County, and those working at the Valencia County Regional Emergency Communications Center in Los Lunas is at the center of it all.

VRECC, which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, has recently received accreditation from the New Mexico Emergency Communications Professional Standards Accreditation Program.

The accreditation recognized the center’s compliance with statewide professional standards designed to strengthen the effectiveness and reliability of emergency communications services across the state.

Tommy Sanchez, who has been the director at VRECC since June 2023, said it was a 2 1/2 year process to acquire this achievement.

“Accreditation is a system that validates our policies, procedures and systems to ensure that we are providing the best service to our community,” Sanchez said. “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.”

The director said now that the center has the accreditation, the community knows that the services provided are well thought out, comprehensive and will meet their needs.

“The process to becoming accredited is long and difficult for this reason. We had to look at all of our processes and examine what we were doing and what we needed to be doing,” he said. “Once we established the changes we needed to make, we had to create policy or operating guidelines, go through approvals, instruct our employees on the changes, and then prove that those changes were implemented and functioning on the floor.”

The Valencia County Regional Emergency Communications Center demonstrated adherence to the professional standards, which guide operations, professionalism and accountability for county emergency communications programs, according to the New Mexico Emergency Communications Professional Standards Council.

According to information provided from VRECC, they’ve been very busy over the past couple of years. In 2024, there were a total of 116,924 incidents that occurred in Valencia County, with 39,735 calls into 911. In total, VRECC answered 161,759 calls, which include non-emergency calls.

Last year, there was a 1.5 percent increase in the number of total incidents — 118,667. The total number of 911 calls decreased by 7.2 percent at 36,884. The total number of calls into VRECC in 2025 was 155,95, a 3.6 percent decrease.

“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.”

The accreditation is valid for three years, from Dec. 10, 2025, through Dec. 9, 2028. To maintain the accredited status, VRECC must submit annual reports and undergo a reassessment before the accreditation period expires.

The Valencia County Regional Emergency Communications Center serves as the primary dispatch and communications hub for emergency response agencies throughout Valencia County.