A. Any person who knowingly dials 911 for the purpose of reporting a false alarm, making a false complaint or reporting false information that results in an emergency response by any public safety agency is guilty of a petty misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500) or imprisonment for a term not to exceed six months, or both.
B. A municipality or a county may adopt an ordinance making it a violation for any person to knowingly dial 911 for the purpose of reporting a false alarm, making a false complaint or reporting false information that results in an emergency response by any public safety agency. The municipality may adopt and enforce the ordinance pursuant to the authority provided in Section 3-17-1 NMSA 1978. The county may adopt and enforce the ordinance pursuant to the authority provided in Section 4-37-1 NMSA 1978.
History: Laws 1993, ch. 48, § 13; 2017, ch. 122, § 8.
ANNOTATIONSThe 2017 amendment, effective June 16, 2017, authorized counties to adopt an ordinance making it a violation for any person to knowingly dial 911 for the purpose of reporting a false alarm, making a false complaint or reporting false information that results in an emergency response by any public safety agency; and in Subsection B, after "municipality", added "or a county", and added the last sentence of the subsection.