Local
Oakland dispatch outage limits police response to top-priority calls
A computer-aided dispatch failure disrupted Oakland’s emergency and non-emergency phone services, sending 911 calls to Alameda County dispatchers. Police said they were responding only to Priority One calls while city IT staff and AT&T worked to restore service.
Oakland’s 911 dispatch system was disrupted Wednesday night, Oct. 21, and emergency calls were being handled by Alameda County dispatchers into Thursday as the city worked to restore service.
Oakland Police Department dispatchers reported around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday that their computer-aided dispatch system had frozen and displayed an error, preventing calls from coming through. About 75 minutes later, calls were rerouted to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office dispatch center.
Police Chief James Beere said dispatchers had been moved to the Oakland Fire Dispatch Center and the sheriff’s dispatch center. The department was responding only to “Priority One” calls, he said, while Oakland’s information technology department worked with AT&T to restore internet and phone service. The cause of the disruption and an estimated restoration time had not been announced.
The outage also affected OAK311, the city’s non-emergency service line. People reporting major infrastructure or flooding emergencies were directed to call 911; other non-emergency requests could be sent by email to OAK311@oaklandca.gov.
The disruption comes after Oakland upgraded its 911 dispatch system in 2024, its first such upgrade in two decades. The city then moved to Motorola’s PremiereOne system, though it was not clear whether that system was connected to the computer-aided dispatch failure. Before the upgrade, residents had raised concerns about delays in answering emergency calls. Subsequent data showed about half of calls were answered within 15 seconds, below California’s standard that 90% be answered within that time.