If you live in Oakland, California, and you witness a crime or are a victim of one, don’t call emergency services. They might not even pick up. While a local story, it’s terrifying: you dial 911, and no one will hear you. Technical issues appear to be impacting the dispatch services, becoming so bad that it was shut down entirely for 26 hours last weekend (via NBC Bay Area):
The city of Oakland's 911 call dispatch system was dealing with more glitches Saturday.
After being down for nearly 26 hours, it was up and running again Friday night. But on Saturday morning, Oakland’s 911 dispatching system took another hit.
Oakland’s automated 911 dispatching center had to revert to doing things manually again. This follows a power failure that caused major technical glitches on Thursday.
“Yet again, we woke up and the CAD system that computerizes dispatching of police officers to emergencies collapsed yet again,” said Barry Donelan, president of the Oakland Police Officers Association. "It was down all morning, putting the dispatchers in a position, where they were again manually hand writing calls for service and physically handing them to a dispatcher to them on the radio. And officers were responding in teams of two to each of these calls. It slowed emergency services."
The city of Oakland released a statement Saturday morning, which said in part: “We observed impacts to the automated dispatching system. They added that "all dispatch staff resumed manual call routing, so routing for calls was slower than normal.”
Yet, this crisis within Oakland’s emergency service response system appears to have been cooking for quite some time. It’s been that way for years. In June, the city held the ignominious honor of having the second-worst answering time in the state. But it was also bad during the COVID pandemic. NBC Bay Area found multiple occasions where citizens needed emergency assistance but got stonewalled by the glitches plaguing the system. An off-duty Oakland police officer was stabbed in the neck and could not connect through to 911 services. It wouldn’t connect. Another man, an owner of an auto shop, found a dead body on his property, and it took him 10 minutes to speak with a 911 dispatcher. The hellacious experience led to him saying that he doesn’t dial 911 anymore. Some of the issues stem from the software not being up to date. There are flaring technological deficiencies, along with some local politics that have hamstrung making this service more efficient (via NBC Bay Area):
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CHP Golden Gate Division is a 911 hub and assists with emergency calls from parts of all nine Bay Area counties. California also has one of the highest 911 call volumes in the nation.
[…]
In 2019, Oakland Police Officer Danny Chor was off duty when he saw a woman vandalizing cars. When he confronted the woman, 41-year-old Margaret Elizabeth-Mary Goodliffe stabbed him in the neck and was later convicted of attempted murder of a peace officer. Chor was bleeding profusely while pointing his gun at Goodliffe. They were two blocks away from police headquarters.
But when Chor tried calling 911 with his cell phone, his calls repeatedly failed to connect.
The officer flagged down a garbage truck operator in the area who also tried calling 911, but his calls failed to connect as well. He had to call his supervisor whose calls finally went through.
[…]
Oakland’s 911 phone system was recently replaced, according to a new Alameda County Grand Jury report released June 23. However, when it comes to the city's other 911 technology, Oakland “has not yet implemented the dispatch and record keeping software that was noted as almost ready in the 2019-2020 report.” In fact, according the report, both its software and hardware is “so out of date, it is no longer supportable. The Oakland Police Department is forced to buy replacement parts on eBay because Motorola doesn’t supply them anymore. Motorola only has one technician who still knows how to work on the 20-year-old software.”
In addition to out of date 911 technology, Oakland’s Emergency Communication Center (ECC) still faces major staff shortages and a record number of 911 calls. According to 2022-2023 grand jurors, “there simply aren't enough bodies employed at the ECC to answer phone calls in a timely manner.”
[…]
Alan Liang owns an Oakland auto shop and uses a nearby tow yard. Last September, he found a crushed body in the tow yard. A person was trying to steal a catalytic converter when the cars crushed him.
“I did call 911, and the experience was absolutely horrible,” Liang said. “I was placed on hold for maybe about 10 to 15 minutes.”
And that’s after Liang said his 911 calls repeatedly failed to connect.
“In all, it probably took 15 to 20 minutes to talk to a dispatcher,” he said.
[…]
“I feel like the city leaders are not taking this issue seriously,” Liang said. “It’s basically a waste of time. I just don’t dial 911 anymore.”
The news outlet added that Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao froze a full-time dispatcher position but won’t say anything more than through press releases from her staff. Thao refused to do an interview.
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