Overview
- Oakland’s computer‑aided dispatch froze late Wednesday night when dispatchers lost phone lines, internet and CAD software, forcing an immediate outage of the city’s 911 system.
- City crews routed incoming 911 calls to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and colocated OPD dispatchers at the Oakland Fire and county dispatch centers while police limited responses to Priority One incidents.
- On Thursday investigators and AT&T found cut copper and fiber‑optic cables and police activated criminal and intelligence units and notified the FBI as they treat the damage as a possible criminal act.
- Crews from the city and AT&T repaired the damaged lines overnight and officials said full phone and dispatch service was restored Friday morning, with a pledge to harden infrastructure and add stronger backups.
- The outage underscores how copper theft and fiber damage can disable modern dispatch systems, exposed limits in standard fallback plans, and raised concern after same‑day 911 troubles were reported in Riverside and Santa Barbara though links remain unconfirmed.