LA Sheriff’s Dispatch System Down After New Year’s Day Computer Crash

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s computer dispatch system is still down after crashing on New Year’s Day. Authorities did not clarify what caused the outage, nor did they say when their systems would be back up and running.

“It’s our own little Y2K,” one sheriff’s deputy said told the LA Times. The crash happened just hours before midnight Tuesday, causing problems with the department’s ability to handle calls related to the county’s New Year’s celebration. LASO said the accident appears to have occurred as a result of the system “disabling CAD by not allowing staff to log in with the new year”.

The anonymous deputy cited by the Times further detailed the problem the department faced as a result of the crash: “Now, call takers have to enter all the information for each call and then dispatch has to make all the calls. Details and patrol units should write it all down,” they said. “They don’t have the man or the ability to run the plate. They can’t pull the report number to give people, so they have to call dispatch.”

Computer-aided dispatch systems (or CAD) are digital communications networks used by police to field 911 calls and respond to emergencies. When these systems go down (sometimes through network failures and sometimes due to cyber attacks) it forces police to operate the same way they operated in the 1990s. Police reports are filled out with a pencil and paper, and 911 calls are fielded over the radio. LA County and the city of Los Angeles have been the targets of several cyber attacks, including a vulnerable one Ransomware attacks That hit the county’s Superior Court last summer.

It is not clear when the system will be back online. “The department is collaborating closely with our LA County partners in the Department of Internal Services to find both temporary and long-term solutions to resolve this technical issue,” an LASD statement said. “Since taking office, the Sheriff has emphasized the urgent need to improve and upgrade our internal systems By mid-2023, the department has issued a formal request for proposals to acquire a new modern, centralized CAD system that will greatly enhance our capabilities,” the statement continued.

Gizmodo has reached out to LASD for more information and will update this story when we receive a response.