Pueblo city councilman accused of abusing 911 line, but the case points to larger conflict
Mackenzie Stafford
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) — Eight calls to dispatch in a matter of hours have landed Pueblo City Councilman Joe Latino in the hot seat.
Audio recording of the calls obtained by KRDO13 show that Councilman Latino called about homeless people, though the issues varied across several locations in Pueblo. Call logs also show that he was asked to call the non-emergency line, and while he did at some points, he reverted to calling 911 later in the evening.
You can listen to the full calls below. Please note, these are unedited and some contain profanity.
What were the calls about?
911 call placed at 4:54 p.m.
In his first call to 911, Councilman Latino reported a group of homeless people who had moved into a vacant property.
“We got some homeless f*cks that moved in with their trailer in the back of a vacant house here,” Councilmember Latino told dispatch. “I want them out of there.”
911 call placed at 4:57 p.m.
According to the timestamps provided to KRDO13, he calls back to 911 just three minutes later, and tells the dispatcher he “wants a report back as to what’s been done.” At this time, the dispatcher asks him to call the non-emergency line.
911 call placed at 5:12 p.m.
In his third call to 911, he tells the dispatcher that he doesn’t have an emergency, but is calling to follow up and asks to talk to a supervisor.
“We’ve had quite a busy day, but I will definitely go ahead and pass the message along to my supervisor and have them reach you as soon as we can,” the dispatcher says.
Call to non-emergency line placed at 5:19 p.m.
A few minutes after the third call, he placed a fourth call to dispatch, this time reportedly under the non-emergency line. He tells the dispatcher that homeless people are lining Sante Fe Avenue, and police need to come out to enforce the Sit-Lie Ordinance.
Call to non-emergency line placed at 8:10 p.m.
About three hours later, call logs show he calls the non-emergency line to ask for a supervisor again.
911 call placed at 11:32 p.m.
According to call logs, a few hours after that, Councilmember Latino reverted to calling 911 again. This time, he reported that homeless people were bothering people outside a Loaf ‘n Jug.
911 call placed at 11:37 p.m.
In his seventh call of the evening, he calls 911 once again about the homeless people at the Loaf ‘n Jug.
“I just called about 5 minutes ago, and I seen three police officers– they were standing around bull sh****** up on the northside there,” he said. “[The homeless people are not] supposed to be on the streets anymore. They just moved, so you don’t have to worry about them now ‘cus I got them out of here. But you need to send an officer down here to check on things,” he later added.
Call to non-emergency line placed at 1:48 a.m.
His final and eighth call comes in at 1:48 a.m., according to call logs. It’s about nine hours after his first call. This call is back to the non-emergency line. He expresses frustration with how things went throughout the evening, and the lack of police dispatched to the locations he called from.
“I will be dealing with the chief [of police] myself as it relates to the nonsense that goes on,” he said. “I apologize to you because you’re just doing your job,” he later said to the dispatcher.
In the council meeting, Councilman Latino said that he’s been frustrated with the police department and has been seeing some of the issues on the streets firsthand.
“I used to be able to walk down the streets, the damn streets, at 6 or 7 o’clock at night after football. We can’t do that anymore. It breaks my heart,” said Councilmember Latino.
But Pueblo Police Chief Noeller says dispatch is already inundated, fielding hundreds– sometimes thousands– of calls a day.
“When people repeatedly call 911 over issues that don’t rise to the level of being a 911 call, it impacts our ability to get people to the calls where we actually have an incident where somebody’s in danger,” said Chief Noeller.
Pueblo Police want the public to know they are able to call the non-emergency line for non-life-threatening emergencies and non-active incidents. The Pueblo Police non-emergency line is 719-553-2502.
Larger conflict in city council
The calls were the topic of an explosive city council meeting in Pueblo on Monday, but it’s just the latest episode of a feud between the mayor and the city council.
Mayor Heather Graham called out Councilmember Latino, saying that she’s asked him multiple times to stop calling 911 and tying up emergency lines.
“When you have a city councilor calling 911 and tying up the line at 11:30 at night, there’s, there’s just more serious cases that we should be responding to at that point,” said Mayor Graham.
But Councilmember Latino hasn’t been part of Graham’s fan club either. The councilmember told KRDO13 on Tuesday that he led the most recent push to remove her from office.
“It needs to go back to the city manager. I was instrumental in helping with that organization for that because I thought we needed somebody to stand front and center. But basically, it’s not been very good; the results have not been good. So I’m going to support going back to the city manager, city council form a government, you know, and other things that have gone on that have pushed me in that direction,” shared Councilman Latino.
Now, he’s pushing for the City of Pueblo to reinstate a City Manager-led form of government, getting rid of the mayor’s position.
On Monday night, an ordinance passed that will allow voters to decide if they will change part of the City’s Charter. Now, a question will be added to the ballot to see if voters would like to change the form of government from Mayor to City Manager.