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The Houston Emergency Center’s communication system experienced disruptions in power on Monday night, leading to at least partial failure of the system.
With approximately 6,000 calls coming in daily to Houston’s fire, emergency medical services, and police, the center plays a critical role in coordinating responses to various emergencies.
During planned electrical upgrades, unexpected issues arose, causing parts of the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system to crash, according to Houston Emergency Center Director Robert Mock.
As a result, call-takers had to resort to manual methods, recording information from incoming 911 calls by hand. This included critical details about incidents such as homicides, heart attacks, and fires.
Different departments were affected to varying degrees due to the diverse terminals within the CAD system. The Houston Police Department experienced direct impacts for about an hour, while the Houston Fire Department reported being affected for approximately 4.5 hours.
Even after manually relaying information to dispatchers, further issues persisted. Dispatch consoles for Houston police were also knocked out, leading to a shift to radio communication.
Mock clarified that while initial reports suggested a brief failure, he believed it lasted for about an hour. However, the fire department’s direct impact might have been significantly longer.
Despite the challenges, Mock emphasized that contingency plans were in place to manage such situations. Dispatchers handled approximately 260 calls during the outage, with the majority being answered within the target time frame.
Details regarding the impact on first responders’ response times are still being investigated. The fire department acknowledged delays in call responses but assured that all calls were eventually addressed.
Houston police referred to their “catastrophic loss of communication policy,” which dictates specific actions for officers in such scenarios. However, it remains unclear if and which officers were instructed to report back to their stations as of Wednesday evening.