And so, that $2 billion 911 emergency system serves the city yet another blow. Yesterday, 911 crashed for nearly two hours, thanks to still undetermined reasons. This is just one of many, many problems this fancy system's endured since its implementation during the Bloomberg administration—look forward to more in the years to come, unless Mayor de Blasio manages to miraculously fix everything.
The Computer Aided Dispatch system (CAD), crashed at around 2:30 p.m., forcing dispatchers to take down calls manually on paper before radioing them to EMTs. The downed system, which went back online at around 4:10 p.m., only affected ambulances and not police or fire reports, and luckily callers were able to reach 911 operators throughout the system failure. But the Daily News reports the downed system still put strain on already overwhelmed workers—according to the tabloid, an ambulance never showed up after a man was attacked and injured in East New York, though they did not confirm whether this had to do with the system outage. A police van reportedly transported the victim to Brookdale Hospital.
The FDNY, for its part, refutes claims that operators had trouble keeping up with calls. "This outage had nothing to do with being able to receive 911 calls. We were in constant contact with the NYPD,” spokesperson Jim Long told the News. “We had no problem getting in touch."
The pricey 911 overhaul has been plagued with problems since its 2013 launch, so much so that in May the de Blasio administration ordered the Department of Investigations to look into it, halting further expenditures and system changes for two months. Long told reporters that the system hasn't suffered any glitches for a while, which is almost comforting. Almost.
The FDNY has not yet responded to our request for comment.
