Albuquerque –
On Thursday, April 24, 2025, residents of Albuquerque who rely on the PulsePoint app to monitor motor vehicle crashes, fires, hazmat incidents, gas leaks, and medical responses from Albuquerque Fire Rescue (AFR) noticed the app went dark at approximately 11:36 AM.
After numerous citizen complaints and inquiries, AFR posted on their official social media accounts about the decision to end PulsePoint and it outraged the public even more.
One commenter said:
“It was nice to track what was going on especially when the homeless are lighting fires not far from the residence. The thing I relied on was seeing where accidents were to avoid.“
The outrage on AFR’s Facebook page had citizen’s calling foul about the decision. AFR Lieutenant Eric De La Torre used his personal non-City of Albuquerque Facebook account to openly support the decision.
After the back and forth with the public, AFR finally just turned comments off on the Facebook post. First Amendment supporters would usually decry such a move by a government agency.
Today, we inquired about why comments were turned off on the AFR Facebook post regarding PulsePoint. “What is the reasoning for that?”
We were told by Lt. Fejer that “I turned them off yesterday because comments were getting personal. Nothing was deleted. I’m just trying to manage the page and keep things informational. The post on Instagram still has comments open.”
ABQRAW had been receiving tips since early March suggesting the City of Albuquerque planned to discontinue use of PulsePoint. On March 10, we reached out to AFR to verify these claims. That same day, AFR responded, stating, “It is my understanding that PulsePoint is going away.” The reply continued, “it does have to do with the cost that AFR pays for and the fact that most members have switched over to the First Due app for response info.”
We then asked, “How much does CABQ pay for PulsePoint?” AFR confirmed the city was paying $13,000 per year. Last night on Facebook, they replied to someone commenting and stated they were paying $10,00 per year.
The City of Albuquerque’s budget for Albuquerque Fire Rescue (AFR) for fiscal year 2025 is $119.9 million. This budget was approved by the City Council, along with a total city budget of $1.4 billion.
The PulsePoint purchase would be .00015 percent of the total AFR budget.
To confirm this, we contacted PulsePoint directly. We asked if AFR’s subscription indeed cost $13,000 annually and inquired about the pricing for a fire agency—such as Plano, Texas, which is smaller than Albuquerque. Kraig Erickson, VP of Community Engagement at PulsePoint replied, “The annual subscription is $13k/year. Albuquerque is still using a legacy version of PulsePoint Respond and our pricing is based on population. A city like Plano would pay less and they are at $10,500/year and on the current version.” He further stated, “all agencies are paying the same amount based on their population.”
Mr. Erickson stated that with the full version, which AFR was not utilizing, they would have had the potential to get sponsorships or grants as many other agencies have done. We researched and found where many agencies had all of the annual cost or some of the cost paid for by a grant or sponsorship.
When we asked about a city with a comparable population—such as Tucson—and what they pay, Mr. Erickson explained that Tucson uses a Tier 3 license, which also serves several surrounding communities. As a result, it isn’t directly comparable to AFR, which serves just one community. However, he noted that Tucson pays $25,500. Mr. Erikson openly provided PulsePoint’s pricing structure to us, you can see it here: https://www.pulsepoint.org/pricing.
Presently, there are 834 PulsePoint-connected agencies. There were 835 when AFR was still utilizing the app. Mr. Erickson, from PulsePoint says “there are 5,385 connected communities as many agencies serve multiple communities.” You can read more about PulsePoint stats here: https://www.pulsepoint.org/stats
AFR later explained, “The software’s intent was also to notify users when someone nearby was in need of CPR; however, AFR is only aware of one instance that someone used it for this purpose. In an effort to be efficient with our budget and tax payer dollars, we are determining areas to cut spending and PulsePoint is not being used in a manner to justify the high cost of the software for AFR.”
We also asked whether the new app, First Due, which is replacing PulsePoint, would be available to the public. AFR responded on March 11, stating they would need to contact their First Due Committee to determine if a public version exists. However, in March, we never received confirmation on whether the First Due app would be accessible to the public.
Mayor Tim Keller campaigned in 2017 on a promise of greater transparency than his predecessors, so we reached out for comment about their public safety transparency concerning their police and their fire departments. We asked:
If pulling the plug on PulsePoint was a Mayor decision. How soon will an alternative be up and running? What would Mayor Keller say to the citizens questioning the transparency of access to public safety information?
At the time of this publication we did not hear back from the Mayor’s office. But, AFR Lt. Fejer was cc’ed and responded to the email.
1) Was the decision to go from PulsePoint to another app a Mayor decision? No. Fire Chief Jaramillo made the decision after evaluating the app. Members of the public were not using the app to provide CPR and it was determined that funding would be better served enhancing the Lifesaver Program which teaches members of the public to perform Hands Only CPR, nalaxone administration and bleeding control. AFR’s Dispatchers are also sworn firefighters/EMT’s and will provide CPR instructions over the phone.
2) How soon will Albuquerque residents be able to have the same access to what PulsePoint had? There is no timeframe on any replacements or build outs of any software or Apps currently being used. If anything does come back it will likely only include fire specific events and all medical responses would not be included for patient privacy.
3) In 2017, Mayor Keller promised transparency, the encryption of police radios quickly followed and now this makes citizens question it. What would Mayor Keller say to that? AFR’s channels are not encrypted and still available on scanners and apps.
The answer to question two seems to contradict what AFR told the citizens of Albuquerque on social media yesterday, which was an app replacement was in the works.
Mayor Keller’s Press Secretary Shannon Kunkel e-mailed us back and said they have several meetings today and would share more information when she could. We will update this story if that does happen. We have noticed on numerous occasions that after 2:00PM on Fridays city hall and most city buildings are empty but that is a whole other subject. It is doubtful we will hear from anyone for the next few days.
It is unknown if the contract for the First Due App was ever placed out to bid as government purchasing or goods and services may be subject to the New Mexico procurement code. We did a search on the cabq.gov website of contracts active with the city and could not find a First Due contract.
Four years ago, the Keller administration encrypted police scanner communications, limiting public access to real-time information. The public access to APD’s radio chatter was shut down during the manhunt for the Muslim killer. After the killer was caught, APD decided not to turn the radios back on to the public.
Currently, there is a MOU with APD and media outlets to have access to the radio. ABQ RAW had to file a lawsuit to gain access and we currently have a police radio to listen to police transmissions. AFR radios are still open for anyone in the public to listen to.
We will update this story if anything changes with access to fire/rescue events around Albuquerque. However as we have noticed in the past that once the city takes something away it never returns. The next Albuquerque City Council meeting is May 5th, 2025 and the public can voice their concerns to councilors about this issue.