California’s Next Generation 911 system faces new issues with emergency calls and outages

The California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) is investigating public safety issues related to its Next Generation 911 system, which has faced several new problems, as revealed by police records obtained by NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit.

The state’s $500 million upgrade aims to replace the old landline-based 911 system with an IP-based network, connecting over 400 911 centers across California to provide coordinated support during major emergencies. However, the project has been repeatedly delayed, with the state originally planning to have all centers transitioned by 2021. Currently, only about 5% of the state’s 911 centers are using the new system.

In December, Cal OES suspended the deployment of the Next Generation 911 network after reports of issues such as 911 outages and misdirected calls to the wrong law enforcement agencies. The latest problems come from the Wasco Police Department, one of the newer agencies using the system. In November, the department’s IT manager reported that 911 calls were not going through the system and callers were receiving busy signals, which were later linked to AT&T shutting off their 911 trunks.

AT&T denied responsibility for the issue, stating it was unaware of the problem and did not intentionally cut off any emergency service lines. Meanwhile, the Wasco Police Department faced a six-hour outage in August, where the entire 911 system went down, and in May, a dispatcher was unable to receive calls due to compatibility issues. AT&T explained the May issue as a result of a compatibility problem, but noted it worked swiftly to resolve it.

Despite these challenges, Wasco Police Chief Charles Fivecoat acknowledged improvements in the responsiveness of contractors and emphasized that law enforcement agencies have no choice but to transition to Next Gen 911, as legacy systems will eventually become obsolete.

The state has also been fined for routing issues and failure to address previous outages. Cal OES is continuing to assess and work on improvements, with a spokesperson committing to discussing concerns at an upcoming advisory meeting.

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