Pueblo Police may change accident response

The Pueblo Police Department is understaffed, but there is a solution that they’re looking at to help alleviate some of the issues.

A new option was brought up this week at the city council work session. The city could soon be put on permanent accident alert.

Councilwoman Lori Winner brought up an accident that happened in Pueblo that took police five hours to get to the scene.

She asked Chief Luis Velez if the Police Department could change its protocol to stop responding to traffic accidents in which no one was hurt.

City Manager Sam Azad says it could help alleviate some of the staffing issues but it would take a lot of education.

“We encourage if they can do that, if not they’ll just have to wait until, you know, it’s a Priority 5 call, so we’ll have to take care of all the other priority calls that sit in the queue first,” said Azad.

Azad said they will have to get public input before any decisions are made.