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Verizon still in dark on 911 system failure
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A Verizon employee works on installing fiber-optic cables in this file photo. Verizon officials said Tuesday they are still in the dark about what caused a recent failure of Montgomery County's 911 service two weeks ago.
Montgomery County (Map, News) - Verizon still doesn’t know what caused a recent failure of Montgomery County's 911 service two weeks ago, officials said Tuesday. Deputy Director of Police 911 Operations Bill Ferretti told the County Council the problem occurred right before noon Sept. 22 at its Gaithersburg headquarters as a call was coming in.
Service was out for nine minutes before calls were rerouted to a backup office in Rockville.
That reroute went on for several days, Ferretti said, and a software patch has since been installed to fix the problem.
“On a Saturday morning, [911] traffic is not that high that you would immediately notice that traffic is not coming in,” he said.
The system has an alarm that would be triggered in the event of a crash but it did not go off because “it was more of a freeze,” Ferretti said.
He and council members said there had been no reports of deaths that occurred because of the drop in service.
When people could not get through to 911, calls were made to fire stations instead, Ferretti said.
“This is the first failure of the central switch in its four-plus years of operation,” Ferretti said.
Council members Tuesday did not appear too concerned over the nine-minute service drop.
“We want to minimize the chance that there will be any future problem because public safety is paramount,” Council Member Phil Andrews said.
“We invest a great deal of time and effort in our call systems, in our radio systems and our dispatching systems to serve the public well,” Andrews said. “It’s disappointing when there’s a breakdown.
“It’s worth noting that it was recognized quickly.”
