So. Fla. Police Phone Lines Downed; 9-1-1 not affected
The administrative phone lines to Delray Beach (Fla.) police went down for a couple of hours Tuesday morning, and problems arose with the phone lines into some other departments, including those in Palm Beach Gardens and Boca Raton.
The outage was the result of a glitch during an upgrade to the phone system for emergency-service agencies across the Palm Beach County, but it did not hinder emergency 9-1-1 calls, said Chuck Spalding, the county’s director of 9-1-1 services.
The glitch first made itself known Sunday night, cutting off some administrative lines but only briefly. But about 7 a.m. Tuesday, more extensive problems surfaced. Delray Beach was hit hardest, losing all its administrative lines, Spalding said.
The department notified the public online via Twitter and Facebook and posted cellular phone line alternatives. The system serves 17 municipal police agencies in the county and serves as a second stop for Palm Beach County Fire Rescue calls.
Of those, at least Palm Beach Gardens and Boca Raton experienced issues to their lines. In Boca Raton, spokesman Mark Economou said the administrative calls were coming though, but some coding information on 9-1-1 calls was incomplete. None of the issues hindered service there, Economou said. Its dispatchers were also fielding the administrative calls diverted from Delray Beach, he said.
The problems were resolved and all phone lines working properly by 12:30 p.m., said Dan Koenig, the county’s 9-1-1 planning coordinator.
A $30 million upgrade of the 9-1-1 system was completed recently. This secondary upgrade was prompted by Microsoft’s move to a Windows 7 operating system, Koenig said.
The goal Tuesday was to fix the problem; the next step is to investigate what caused it to be sure it doesn’t happen again, Koenig said.