Sedona AZ (May 2, 2014) – On Thursday, May 1, 2014, at about 3:00 in the afternoon, all of the phone land lines servicing the Arizona side of the Navajo Nation went out of service. For approximately twenty hours, Coconino County Sheriff’s Office and Flagstaff Police Dispatchers provided relay information to the Navajo Department of Public Safety via cell phones and the Sheriff’s Office vehicle radio system.

The Navajo Nation telephone lines outage came to the attention of the CCSO and Flagstaff Police Dispatchers at about 3:30 p.m. on Thursday when the Flagstaff Police Department Regional 911 Center received a 9-1-1 call from a Navajo Nation citizen reporting a shooting. Immediately dispatchers attempted to contact the Tuba City dispatch center and learned its line was not functioning. Further attempts to contact the Navajo Police Department by calling several of its land lines also failed.

Shortly after the first call, Coconino/Flagstaff Dispatchers received a 9-1-1 call from another Navajo Nation citizen reporting a domestic violence incident in Cameron. CCSO responded to that call. Its deputies were able to contact a Navajo Department of Public Safety Officer on his cell phone and he also responded to the Cameron incident.

CCSO personnel established cell phone contact with Navajo Nation Public Safety Dispatchers at several of its dispatch centers on the Arizona side of the Navajo Nation and relayed incoming calls for service. During the remainder of Thursday through Friday morning, Coconino Sheriff/Flagstaff Police Dispatchers relayed approximately eighteen calls for service from Navajo Nation citizens to the appropriate dispatch centers in Tuba City and Dilkon, Arizona.

No information is available at press time as to the initial cause of the Arizona land line outage.

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