KAYENTA, Ariz. – Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren joined public safety officials, community leaders and project partners to celebrate the opening of the new Kayenta Regional Communication Center, marking a major milestone in modernizing emergency response across the Navajo Nation.
The Kayenta facility is one of two new regional Public Safety Answering Points established through the Navajo Rural Addressing and Next Generation 9-1-1 Project. Together, the Kayenta and Shiprock centers will consolidate seven existing dispatch centers into two modern facilities providing 24/7 emergency communications with multiple dispatchers and updated technology.
“From Kayenta to Shiprock, our goal is to give Navajo families a public safety system that is modern, reliable, and built around the needs of our communities,” President Nygren said.
The Navajo Nation committed approximately $35 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to the project, supporting rural addressing, GIS data collection, NG911 technology, communications equipment, infrastructure, training and the two regional facilities.
Through the project, all 110 Navajo Nation chapters have been driven and mapped, with 72,490 address points and more than 6.89 million GPS position points collected. Accurate physical and GIS addresses will help police, fire, EMS and other first responders locate emergencies more quickly and dispatch services more accurately, particularly in rural communities.
Each regional center is approximately 6,144 square feet and includes modern dispatch workstations, training and conference rooms, server infrastructure, administrative space and backup power. The two centers will also provide redundancy, allowing one facility to support operations if the other experiences a disruption.
A central principle of the project is “For Navajo/By Navajo,” strengthening Navajo Nation sovereignty by keeping critical emergency communications technology, equipment and data located and controlled on the Navajo Nation.
The project is scheduled to accomplish its primary objectives by the end of 2026, building a faster, more reliable and more coordinated emergency response system for Navajo communities.
