Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Baltimore Moves to Replace 911 Dispatch System After Fatal 2025 Outage, Backed by $12 Million

Officials expect procurement to start soon with a years-long rollout.

Overview

  • City officials, at a Thursday City Council hearing, said they secured about $12 million in state and federal money to replace the 20-year-old Computer-Aided Dispatch system.
  • The chief information officer said the city will open bidding for a vendor next and reported no CAD outages so far in 2026.
  • Council President Zeke Cohen warned the changeover could take years and pressed for patches to keep the current system from failing during the wait.
  • Eleshiea Goode, whose son Dontae Melton Jr. died after officers could not get an ambulance during a June 2025 CAD outage, urged crisis-response training and accountability reforms.
  • Officials said the new platform should add 911 diversion options, speed response, and tighten security and monitoring for a system that now handles about 2.1 million calls each year.