California 911 Systems Experience Outages, Disrupting Emergency Calls
Systems in Oakland and Riverside County went down Thursday, leading to call rerouting and public alerts.
Major 911 systems in California experienced significant outages on Thursday, causing disruptions in emergency call services in Oakland and Riverside County. The malfunctions led to temporary shutdowns of both emergency and non-emergency lines in affected areas.
In Oakland, the police department reported computer glitches starting late Wednesday night, which led to the outage. Emergency dispatchers were forced to reroute calls to the Alameda County Sheriff’s office, limiting responses to priority one incidents.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department also reported issues, with callers unable to connect to 911 via cell phones. Authorities issued an alert advising residents that 911 might be down and provided an alternative emergency number, 951-776-1078, for real emergencies only. Residents were instructed to stay on the line and monitor official sources for updates.
The cause of the widespread outage in both regions remains undetermined.
