July 07, 2023
A computer-system failure forced dispatchers in Oakland's high-volume 911 center to take down callers' information with pen and paper, slowing the city's ability to respond to emergencies on Thursday and Friday.
The computerized system Oakland police officers rely upon to communicate with dispatchers was down for about 26 hours until it was finally restored to normal operations early Friday evening.
Inside the control center, dispatchers were forced to re-route calls and respond to requests for help using handwritten notes and radios to reach officers on the street, the police union's president said.
Officials did not say how many 911 calls had stacked up, but the crash threatened to further slow response times that already had garnered intense scrutiny.
It comes on the heels of another crippling city technology problem. Earlier this year, a ransomware attack exposed weaknesses in the city's cybersecurity infrastructure, and hackers revealed reams of its employees' data. The latest computer failure prompted renewed frustration over the city's seemingly antiquated IT system.
"It's been a continuing problem," said Paula Hawthorn, chairperson of Oakland's Public Safety and Services Oversight Committee, who described the breakdown as the worst she could remember. "Everyone who knows anything about Oakland IT knows it's in bad shape."
The ordeal began with a power outage at 3:10 p.m. Thursday when the lights went out for 10,800 residents across Oakland, according to Pacific Gas & Electric. Power was restored slightly more than two hours later, said the utility provider, which is still investigating the cause.
It took less than 10 minutes to restore 911 phone lines as the city first routed calls through the Alameda County Sheriff's Office's system while Oakland dispatchers relocated to an unaffected facility.
Still, the city's automated dispatching system — a computerized means of logging 911 callers' information and dispatching first responders — remained inoperable until 5 p.m. Friday. As a result, dispatchers were "manually performing some functions which are normally automated" before the computers were back up and running, the city said in a statement early Friday afternoon.
A set of backup generat[ors] designed to keep the city's communications center running failed during the initial outage on Thursday, complicating matters, said Sgt. Barry Donelan, president of the Oakland police officers' union.
Donelan lamented that the computer system failure had forced dispatchers to resort to a more rudimentary system for assigning officers to emergency calls. Donelan said he was uncertain how many calls had been left waiting and for how long, due to the computer system being inoperable.
"It brings everything to almost a complete halt. They're running at a fraction of a percent efficiency," he said before criticizing the city's response to the outage. "It's a desperate situation for public safety in this town. The officers are working hard, given how few there are and how big the demands are. And the dispatchers are toiling in a difficult environment in the dispatch center. There's no concern for public safety amongst the leadership of this city."
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