Anyone notice this?
Apparently Mt Lee had a complete power outage caused when the back up generator was being tested.
Councilman calls for official's firing after LAPD communications outage - The Daily Breeze
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Yes, "only" the voice radio from the Dispatch Centers was out for that period, and they put the system into what sounded like either a Level 3 or Level 2 "Fallback" mode, exactly as it is supposed to happen in that situation. I have no idea (and apparently he doesn't either) what this councilman means by
"911 calls had to be answered manually," (how else does one answer a phone, robotically?) but the power outage had NO effect on the telephone system for either 9-1-1 or 7-digit calls. They were answered as usual by the Emergency Operators. I also have no idea why "some divisions recalled all officers from the field." The station, vehicle, and portable radios were all functional.
The RTOs (Radio Dispatchers) immediately relay call information to their respective station's Area Command Center radio console - I think they use MC3000s - via open phone lines they establish. The calls are voice broadcast from the station on either the regular or "Fallback" radio frequency for the division.
It's a very complex system of systems, and any system crash is of course a serious matter which I'm sure a lot of people at LAPD, General Services, Information Technology Agency and elsewhere started looking into as soon as it started. Certainly there is a degradation of capabilities with major outage like this, and for that reason LAPD has about a half dozen "fallback" levels and operational modes depending on which frequency(s), systems, or subsystems go down completely or partially.
Councilman/Reserve Officer Englander would never have made it as a cop in the 1960s and early 70s when there were no MDCs, no repeaters, no "backup" frequencies or dispatch capabilities, no 9-1-1, no portable radios, and no computers but rather teletypes and pneumatic tubes to
R&I Division for access to suspect/vehicle information.
But
somebody's gotta be fired. That'll keep anything from ever going wrong again.