911 systems across California suddenly shutdown sparking chaos

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Two major 911 systems across California suddenly malfunctioned Thursday morning, sparking chaos.

Callers in Oakland and Riverside County could not get through to emergency dispatchers at times following the mass outage.

Oakland Police Department reported their computers started glitching late Wednesday night as emergency and non-emergency lines cut out. All calls were being re-routed to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, NBC Bay Area reported, after a computer system freeze Wednesday night.

OPD dispatchers have moved to the Oakland Fire and Alameda County Sheriff’s dispatch center and are only responding to priority one calls. Their IT department is working to restore services with AT&T.

In Riverside County, the sheriff’s department said they had reports that some callers were not getting through using their cell phones.

An alert sent out to residents said: “Public safety alert. 911 may be down in Riverside County. If you cannot reach 911, call 951-776-1078. Use this number only for real emergencies.

“Stay on the line. Updates will be provided as systems are restored. Monitor official sources for information.”

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office wrote on X: “9-1-1 OUTAGE ALERT We are aware of an outage affecting some cellular users’ ability to call 9-1-1. If you have an emergency and cannot get through to 9-1-1, please call 951-776-1078.”

It remains unclear the cause of the outage in both areas.

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