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 it crashed on New Year’s Day. Authorities haven’t been clear on what caused the crash, nor have they said when their systems will be up and running again.

“It’s our own little Y2K,” a sheriff’s deputy told the LA Times. The crash occurred just a few hours before midnight on Tuesday, spurring problems with the department’s ability to handle calls related to the county’s New Year’s celebrations. The LASO has said that the crash appears to have occurred as a result of the system “not allowing personnel to log on with the new year, making the CAD inoperable.”

The anonymous deputy quoted by the Times also provided more details about the trouble the department was having as a result of the crash: “Now, the call takers have to write down all the information for each call and then the dispatch has to voice all the details and the patrol unit has to write it all down,” they said. “They don’t have the ability to run people or plates. They can’t pull report numbers to give to people, so they have to call dispatch.”

Computer-aided dispatch systems (or CAD) are the digital communication networks that cops use to field 911 calls and respond to emergencies. When those systems go down (sometimes through network error and sometimes due to cyberattacks) it forces police to handle police work in the same ways they handled it in the 1990s. Police reports are filled out with a pencil and paper and 911 calls are fielded with radios. LA County and the city of Los Angeles have been the target of numerous cyberattacks, including a debilitating ransomware attack that struck the county’s Superior Court last summer.

It’s unclear when the system will come back online. “The Department is collaborating closely with our LA County partners at the Internal Services Department 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. In mid-2023, the Department issued a formal request for proposals to acquire a new modernized, centralized CAD system that will greatly enhance our capabilities,” the statement continues.

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