L.A. County sheriff’s computer dispatch system crashes again

For the second time in just over a month, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s computer dispatch system crashed on Wednesday evening, rendering patrol car computers unusable and forcing deputies to handle calls by radio.

Previously, the 38-year-old computer-aided dispatch system — known as CAD — went down on New Year’s Eve, when a Y2K-style glitch was “not allowing personnel to log on with the new year,” according to the department.

Three days later, the department said a “temporary fix” got the system back up and running.

This time around, it was not immediately clear what caused the system failure, which the department rectified by 9 p.m.

California

‘Our own little Y2K’: L.A. County sheriff’s computer dispatch system still down

It’s not clear how long it will take to fix the problem, but in the meantime deputies and dispatchers must use radios instead of patrol car computers.

Jan. 2, 2025

As before, other systems — including body cameras, 911 lines and department emails — continued functioning during the outage. Deputies were still able to respond to calls, though they couldn’t run license plates or background checks from their patrol cars.

“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,” one deputy explained when the system crashed before. “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.”

Early last month, the department said it had been in the process of trying to upgrade the dispatch system for some time, and that it had issued a request for proposals for a new CAD system in mid-2023. The department also said then that it was still evaluating options and that testing of one potential system was scheduled to begin imminently.

“The department has long struggled with outdated technology, and since taking office, the Sheriff has stressed the critical importance of upgrading and enhancing our internal systems,” the department said on behalf of Sheriff Robert Luna in a statement late Wednesday.

“In his first six months of his administration, the Sheriff addressed the need to replace the archaic CAD, among other systems, and further develop a multi-year equipment replacement plan for the department, which had never been done before.”