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Glitch sends city 911 operators to high ground

Cell-phone backup plan 'smooth'

By Christina Leonard
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 7, 1999

When an electronics meltdown at Phoenix police's dispatch center shut down the 911 system early Friday, operators crawled out of bed and headed to large parks, high hills, any place for a clear radio transmission.

There, they received calls via cell phones from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, which was handling the diverted emergency calls. Then, they used two-way radios to dispatch squad cars.

Although the backup system seems a bit complicated, a police spokesman said it worked flawlessly.

"It was very stressful, but very smooth," Sgt. Jeff Halstead said, adding that no emergency calls were lost.

But it was a close enough call to scare some officials.

"It has the possibility of being an absolute nightmare," Phoenix Fire Division Chief Bob Khan said. "It's the logistics of getting people activated so that calls for service are never delayed."

A piece of equipment that regulates the flow of electricity into the department's Communications Bureau near First and Elwood streets went down about 2 a.m., causing a shutdown of all electronic equipment, including the computers, air-conditioning and lights, Halstead said.

Even the phone lines, which are electronically based, went down.

Law enforcement officials say a glitch of this magnitude seldom occurs.

"I've been here 15 years, and a total power loss like this hasn't happened in that amount of time," said Joe Hindman, administrator for the Phoenix Police Computer Services Bureau. "It's an unusual thing to have happen."

Hindman said a heavy voltage spike may be to blame.

And although the department has two generators in case something goes wrong, they were useless in this case, Hindman said.

"Fortunately, it was a very slow time," he said.

Citywide 911 calls were still answered by a central dispatcher who directs calls to police or fire. With the turn of a key, all police calls were immediately transferred to the Sheriff's Office, instead of police. Phoenix operators were called at home and sent to the Sheriff's Office to help.

Some also went to police headquarters and others hit the streets, looking for spots that could handle two-way radio transmissions so they could direct patrol officers. But that meant finding "high ground" and steering clear of parking garages and downtown facilities that could garble the signals, Halstead said.

"It's almost like a military-type situation - using land lines to communicate," he said.

And although some of the dispatchers had to jot down calls by hand, Halstead said response time only slowed about half a minute.

Several hours later, the Phoenix dispatch center was up and running again.

Departments across the Valley routinely test their emergency systems, and Friday's electronic woes may have served as helpful training.

"We were getting a Y2K test before Y2K," Hindman said.

The Communications Bureau handled about 2.1 million incoming 911 and Crime Stop calls during 1997. Of these calls, 86 percent were answered within 10 seconds.

Because of the large volume of calls, the Sheriff's Office and Phoenix Police Department rely on one another for backup.

"We're the two largest agencies," county sheriff's Sgt. Dave Trombi said. "We know they have manpower and vice versa."

Trombi said both agencies also use some of the the same equipment, making it easier in an emergency situation.

"Any piece of equipment, any piece of technology, has the capability of breaking down," Trombi said.

***

Christina Leonard can be reached at (602) 444-8995 or at christina.leonard@pni.com via e-mail.

-- flb (fben4077@yahoo.com), August 12, 1999

Answers

It's not a foretaste of anything (unless maybe y2k hysteria). It's just another short localized power disruption. They always have happened, and always will. Try to get a grip, y2k wackos.

-- cd (artful@dodger.com), August 12, 1999.

This is good news! A back up contingency plan that worked. Flawlessly!

Hat's off! And three cheers!

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), August 12, 1999.

cd,

While this particular glitch was not caused by a Y2K error, it sounds as if you're unaware of how many non-compliant 911 systems there still are:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/y2k_readiness990805.html

[snip]

Many 911 Centers Arent Compliant

Of greatest concern to the administration is inadequate preparation by small businesses and hospitals, local governments and school districts  organizations taking a wait-and-see approach to computer failures after the new year.

The council urged the nation to shift its focus to areas where the highest chance for failures exist and to make sure that organizations have contingency plans for unexpected failures.

The report, which called Y2K preparations one of the most extraordinary management challenges of our time, said 25 percent of counties have no formal plans, and only a little more than one- third the nations 911 emergency call centers were compliant in June.

There has been concern about the slow progress in the area of remediating 911 dispatch systems, especially in municipalities with large populations that often operate complex systems, the report said.

[snip]

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), August 12, 1999.

cd, you are the wacko, my friend. anyone that lurks around a site they have absolutely no interest in is definitely wacked. Spread your sunshine somewhere else, thanks.

DOWNtheROAD

-- DOWNtheROAD (foo@foo.com), August 12, 1999.

Lets see here:

Their emergency generator(s) were hooked up "wrong" - they were present, but useless in this particular case. So what would they power?

Also: The "internal" phone lines (transfered to the sheriff's dept) worked, as did the rest of the city's lines:

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If these had failed, there would have been no way to transfer calls, nor to get help by "calling at home", nor to use "land lines" rather than radio.

They got lucky.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), August 12, 1999.