Calif. Police Department Restricts Responses After 911, Dispatch Systems Go Down

Oakland police temporarily shifted 911 operations to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office after a communications outage knocked out phone, internet and dispatch systems at the department's communications center.

By Harry Harris

Source Bay Area News Group

Oct. 22, 2026

2 min read

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Oakland police dispatch systems lost phone, internet and computer-aided dispatch capabilities Wednesday night after the department's CAD system froze and displayed an error message.
911 calls were rerouted to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, and Oakland dispatchers were relocated to county and fire department dispatch centers while repairs are underway.
Police are responding only to priority-one emergency calls until service is restored, while city IT staff and AT&T work to fix the outage.

911 dialed on a phone — A failure involving Oakland's computer-aided dispatch system left police without phone and internet service, forcing dispatchers to relocate and limiting officer responses to priority emergencies.

OAKLAND, CA—The city is working to restore the ability of police department dispatchers to answer 911 and other calls after the phone and computer systems went down at the police dispatch center Wednesday night, officials said Thursday.

Dispatchers are currently only sending officers to serious crime calls, officials said Thursday morning.

In a social media message, Chief of Police James Beere said that just after 8:30 PM Wednesday dispatchers at the communications center noticed that their Computer-Aided Dispatch system froze and displayed an error message. Dispatchers then tried both emergency and non-emergency lines and discovered there was no service to all phone lines, internet, or CAD.

Beere said just after 9:45 PM, all 911 calls were transferred to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and that OPD dispatchers were relocated to the Oakland Fire Dispatch Center and the Alameda County Sheriff’s dispatch center.

The county was answering 911 calls and relaying information to Oakland dispatchers stationed at the fire department on Thursday. Officers are only responding to priority one calls until the services are restored.

Beere said the city’s IT department is working with service provider AT&T to restore internet and phone services at the police dispatch center..

As of Thursday morning, fire department dispatchers were able to respond to all fire and medical calls.

The OAK311 lines are affected by the same issue. To report an infrastructure emergency like flooding or a downed power line, please call 911 as normal. If you have a nonemergency like a pothole or illegal dumping to report, please email it to [email protected].

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