911 down in Oakland; emergency calls routed to Alameda County

OAKLAND, Calif. - The 911 emergency calls to Oakland police have been down since Wednesday night and are being rerouted to the Alameda County Sheriff's dispatch center, as well as to Oakland's fire dispatch center, police reported on Thursday.

911 calls to OPD down

What we know:

As of Thursday morning, the 911 system to OPD was still not working.

In a social media post, Oakland police said they noticed their dispatch system was frozen at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday. At 9:45 p.m., OPD began transferring 911 calls to the sheriff's office and to Oakland fire dispatch. Fire crews are still responding to 911 fire and medical calls. 

Because of this, OPD dispatchers are only responding to priority 1 calls.

Alameda County Sheriff Sgt. Roberto Morales said there aren't any delays being reported because of the problem.

That's because, he said, OPD dispatchers are sitting next to the county dispatchers and taking the calls that pertain to Oakland. 

He said they have protocols for situations like this. 

What we don't know:

It's unclear what caused the system to stop working.

The city of Oakland's IT department was working with AT&T to restore internet and phone services, police said.

The OAK311 lines are affected by the same issue. 

What you can do:

If you want to report an infrastructure emergency like flooding or a downed power line, police say to call 911 as normal. If you have a nonemergency like a pothole or illegal dumping to report, police said you should email it to OAK311@oaklandca.gov.