Just after lunchtime on June 18, Massachusetts’ leaders discovered that the statewide 911 system was down. A scramble to handle the crisis was on. Police texted out administrative numbers that callers could use, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu gave outage updates at a press conference outlining plans for the Celtics’ championship parade, and local officials urged people to summon help by pulling red fire alarm boxes, KFF Health News reports. About 7 million people went roughly two hours with no 911 service. Such crashes have become more of a feature than a bug in the nation’s fragmented emergency response system. Outages have hit at least eight states this year. They’re emblematic of problems plaguing emergency communications due, in part, to wide disparities in the systems’ age and capabilities, and funding of 911 systems across the country. While some states, cities, and counties have already modernized their systems or have made plans to upgrade, many others are lagging.
The 911 system is typically supported by fee added to phone bills, but state and local governments also tap general funds or other resources. “Now there are haves and have-nots,” said Jonathan Gilad of the National Emergency Number Association, which represents 911 first responders. “Next-generation 911 shouldn’t be for people who happen to have an emergency in a good location.” Meanwhile, federal legislation that could steer billions of dollars into modernizing the patchwork 911 system remains waylaid in Congress. “This is a national security imperative,” said George Kelemen of the Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies, a trade association that represents companies that provide hardware and software to the emergency response industry. “In a crisis – a school shooting or a house fire or, God forbid, a terrorist attack – people call 911 first,” he said. “The system can’t go down.” The U.S. debuted a single, universal 911 emergency number in 1968 to simplify crisis response. Instead of a seamless national program, the 911 response network has evolved into a massive puzzle of many interlocking pieces. There are more than 6,000 911 call centers to handle an estimated 240 million emergency calls each year. More than three-quarters of call centers experienced outages in the prior 12 months, found a survey in February by the National Emergency Number Association, which sets standards for 911, and Carbyne, a provider of public safety technology.