RI State Police investigating what caused 911 system failure

By Bianca Buono

bbuono@abc6.com

@BBuonoABC6

Rhode Island State Police say a computer software issue is to blame for Monday night’s 911 system failure. It was down for 45 minutes and police say that has never happened before.

"It was a breakdown of two way communication. We could hear the callers but they couldn’t hear us,” said Lt. Col. Kevin Barry of Rhode Island State Police.

State Police have a backup system in place in case something like this happens. The problem on Monday was the backup system didn’t work.

"The software did not detect that the callers couldn’t hear us,” Barry explained.

It took officials 45 minutes to figure that out, and once they did, the manually switched to the backup; but in that time, 125 911 calls came in from across the state ranging from car accidents to medical calls.

Officials have not been able to reach six callers and are unsure why they were calling.

Police are now working with Solacom and AK Associates, the companies behind the system, to figure out exactly what caused the computer software issue. They do not believe they were hacked.

"We’re doing all we can to resolve this matter so it does not happen again,” said William Gasbarro, the Director of Rhode Island E911.

State Police recommend saving your local fire and police department’s direct phone numbers in case this ever happens again.

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