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Oakland restores police and fire dispatch after two-day 911 disruption
Oakland’s emergency dispatch system was operating normally again Friday morning after damage to AT&T fiber-optic cables disrupted police and fire communications Wednesday night. During the outage, Alameda County and Oakland fire dispatchers helped route emergency calls and relay information to police.
Oakland restored its 911 dispatch system Friday morning, ending a disruption that began Wednesday night when damage to AT&T fiber-optic cables knocked out the city’s emergency communications system for police and fire services.
The outage began at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21. The city’s information technology teams and AT&T brought the computer-aided dispatch system and internet service back online Thursday evening, but telephone repairs were not completed until Friday morning, Oct. 23.
During the disruption, 911 calls were routed through the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. Oakland police dispatchers worked from the Oakland Fire Department’s dispatch center and the sheriff’s dispatch center. Fire dispatchers continued handling fire and medical calls, while county staff answered 911 calls and relayed information to Oakland police dispatchers.
Police Chief James Beere said Thursday that two of the city’s initial backup plans were also compromised. AT&T said a fiber-optic cable had been cut and that the company did not believe the damage was caused by theft or vandalism. The outage was also described as possibly connected to copper-wire theft; the cause was not definitively established in the available information.
The disruption underscored how damage to communications infrastructure can affect emergency response even when agencies activate backup procedures. AT&T said calls were still getting through during the incident, though some were being routed to the wrong location.