San Francisco's renovated 911 emergency dispatch center has problems day after unveiling
Shortly after the city of San Francisco opened its newly renovated 911 emergency dispatch center this week, there was a brief outage and switch to a backup system.
The computer-aided dispatch system went down for approximately two and a half hours early Thursday morning, according to a spokesperson for the city's Department of Emergency Management.
"Dispatch immediately switched to a redundant system and there was no impact on the public's ability to call 911 or our ability to dispatch emergency services," the spokesperson said.
"The rollout of the new system is a large and complex project, and will include a complete refresh of system hardware, software, and networking technology," the spokesperson said. "During this transition period we will continue to experience intermittent operational disruptions, but these have not impacted the public's ability to call 911 or our ability to dispatch emergency services."
Mayor London Breed and other city officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday to celebrate the renovations to the center that were funded by a 2020 voter-approved Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response bond and was built with the collaboration of multiple city departments.
San Francisco's dispatch center, which receives an average of 3,200 calls a day, was designed to accommodate future growth. It includes five additional dispatcher workstations, bringing the total to 55, with room to add more.
A new dispatcher training room will be put into play soon, as the next academy class is expected to be the largest in over two years. According to a statement from the mayor's office, the mayor and the city's Department of Human Resources have streamlined the application process, and the number of applicants has doubled since 2022.
"Dispatchers are the first point of contact when people call for help during an emergency. They remain calm and professional under some of the most stressful situations imaginable. We could not keep the people of San Francisco safe without them," said San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott.
The center, located at 1011 Turk St., also includes an updated break room and an elevated supervisor workspace reconfigured for enhanced oversight.
Base salaries for 911 dispatchers start at $106,418 and come with benefits. Minimum qualifications include a high school diploma or equivalent, and two years of experience working with the public. The Department of Emergency Management is currently hiring. More information and application details are at sf.gov/work-san-francisco-911.
