A computer system failure has forced call-takers in Oakland’s high-volume 911 dispatch center to resort to jotting down callers’ information using pen and paper, hindering the city’s ability to respond to emergencies, the police union president said Friday.
The computer system failure marks the most noticeable lingering impact of a power outage that hit the 911 center on Thursday afternoon and created issues not fully resolved a day later, said Sgt. Barry Donelan, president of the Oakland Police Officers’ Association. It has led dispatchers to re-route calls and respond to requests for help using handwritten notes and radios to reach officers on the street, he said.
City officials have given no estimate for when operations will be restored to normal.
The issues have threatened to further slow response times that have garnered intense scrutiny of late, most recently in an Alameda County Civil Grand Jury report that assailed Oakland’s inability to adequately respond to 911 calls.
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, the utility provider said. The cause of the outage remains under investigation.
In a statement Thursday, the city said it had experienced “technical issues,” and as a result, the process for routing 911 calls had been “temporarily slower.” Still, the city stressed that all emergency calls were still being “answered and appropriately dispatched for police, fire and medical services.” The city’s non-emergency lines also were impacted.
“If your call drops or you receive a busy signal, please hang up and call back,” said the city’s statement on Thursday. “Please only call 911 if you have an emergency.”
“We recognize that your calls are urgent and we are grateful for your patience,” the statement added.
On Friday, Oakland Police Department spokesman Paul Chambers deferred all questions about the outage and computer system issues to the city’s communications team, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment from this newspaper. An Oakland Fire Department official could not be reached for comment.
Donelan said a set of backup generators failed during the initial outage, complicating matters. He added that while the power had been restored later on Thursday, the city’s computer system for logging 911 callers’ information and dispatching first responders continued to remain inoperable Friday morning.
The computer system failure has forced dispatchers to resort to a more rudimentary system for assigning officers to emergency calls, Donelan said. Dispatchers have had to take down information from 911 callers by hand using pen and paper, and then relay that information to police officers using radios. 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,” Donelan said. “They’re running at a fraction of a percent efficiency.”
He criticized the city’s response to the outage, saying that “no one has any confidence” in the city’s leadership.
“It’s a desperate situation for public safety in this town,” Donelan said. “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.”
Check back for more information as this story develops.
