Investigation after Baltimore's 911 system malfunctions
BALTIMORE -- For more than an hour on Tuesday night, Baltimore's 911 malfunctioned and callers couldn't get through to a dispatcher, reports CBS Baltimore.
The Baltimore Sun reports that a spokesman for Verizon, the company that provides the city's 911 service, said that during the glitch calls were being re-routed to an empty backup call center.
"Technically the calls were coming in, but they were getting routed to a location where no one was there to pick up," John O'Malley told the Sun.
Instead, the paper reports, calls to 911 were answered with a recorded message: "Baltimore City emergency center, all operators are busy. Your call will be answered in turn. Please do not hang up."
Why that happened is still unknown. Officials are investigating.
During the 911 blackout, the public was asked to call 311 with any emergencies.
"We physically gathered in a room, plans were immediately put into place and 911 call takers transitioned over to 311," said Commissioner Kevin Davis. Baltimore City Police Department.
Social media was also used to get the word out. It's also where concerned people sounded off.
"What could have been a catastrophic event was not," said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.
Police tell CBS Baltimore that during the outage, no real emergencies were called in.
"I know that no nonfatal shootings or fatal shootings occurred during that time frame," said Davis.
Police across the city were instructed to stay visible by leaving their emergency lights on. Emergency management staff have said the system has had troubles before -- but nothing like this.
A Verizon spokesperson has said it's unclear whether the problem was a network or equipment issue.