Since Tuesday night, Dec. 31, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has been manually tracking and responding to calls for service, using only their radios, phones, pen and notepad, after the department’s computer-aided dispatch program crashed and became inoperable, authorities said.
Sheriff Robert Luna said while the computers are inoperable, deputies are only using their radios for dispatch and are writing everything down.
“One deputy in a car is usually multitasking, so response time may be taking just a little bit longer, maybe a couple minutes,” Luna said by phone. “We’re trying to get an interim solution in there.”
In terms of whether those response times have allowed potential suspects to flee before deputies’ arrival, Luna said “I have not heard any specific stories yet, but that could be a consequence of this.”
The department became aware of the issue about 8 p.m. on New Year’s Eve after getting word that deputies at several patrol stations were unable to log into the computers in their squad vehicles, according to a statement from the department.
“It was determined that the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) program which operates on the (computers) is not allowing personnel to log on with the new year making the CAD inoperable,” the department said. “As a result, the Department is currently operating on self-dispatch while the issue is being addressed.”
A timetable for when the system might be fixed was not known, but Luna said Thursday afternoon the department is working on possible temporary solutions. The sheriff declined to specify what potential solutions the department is trying.
Officials said the department “has long faced significant challenges with outdated technology,” and that since taking office, Luna “has emphasized the urgent need to improve and upgrade our internal systems.”
“We need a new system and there’s no way around that,” Luna said.
LASD, in mid-2023, issued a request for proposals for a new CAD system, officials said.
Once those proposals come in, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said she’ll be ready to advocate for the funding.
Supervisor Janice Hahn, in a statement, reiterated the department started the process to replace the system back in 2023, “but it has clearly taken too long, and I stand ready to help them get new technology in place as soon as possible.
“This is a wakeup call,” she continued. “I hope our Sheriff’s Department is looking at all their systems that effect public safety and making any needed improvements so this doesn’t happen again.”
The crash caused temporary alarm for officials that it could be a cyber attack, but officials soon told Luna it was a technical failure that “causes us to go back to a paper system.”
Barger said the ordeal is another hurdle to add for a department that is understaffed, with deputies working overtime.
“They’re asked to do a lot with a little and this is just one more thing that is going to compound the difficulty of doing their job,” she said. “Were hopeful that once we get the final number on the (requests for proposals) that we can begin to replace the system because it’s antiquated and there’s no doubt about it.”
As of Thursday afternoon, the computers were still down, Luna said. No timetable was yet available as to when they might be back online.