BREAKING NEWS: 911 services suffer nationwide outage as officials race to restore emergency lines
- Police departments from Nevada to Pennsylvania and Arizona to Minnesota, tweeted that their 911 systems were down beginning shortly after 6:30pm
- Multiple reports have since indicated that similar outages have occurred throughout Delaware, California, Delaware and Ohio as well
- The outage is impacting phone calls and text messages to 911, reports suggest
- The blackout may be linked to a crash of Microsoft 365 services also on Monday night, which restricted user’s access to various software platforms
- The city of Redmond, Washington, where the software giant is based, noted phone lines and email accounts were down due to the Microsoft outage
Law enforcement agencies across the country reported outages of their 911 systems Monday night, with the cause of the disruption currently unclear.
Police departments from Nevada to Pennsylvania and Arizona to Minnesota, tweeted that their 911 systems were down beginning shortly after 6:30pm.
Multiple reports have since indicated that similar outages have occurred throughout Delaware, California, Delaware and Ohio as well.
The outage is impacting phone calls and text messages to 911, according to the reports.
Police departments from Nevada to Pennsylvania and Arizona to Minnesota, tweeted that their 911 systems were down beginning shortly after 6:30pm
As of 8:15pm, a number of departments had reported their their services were back online.
Others urged anyone in need of emergency assistance to call local police departments directly, rather than using 911, as they race to fix the issue.
The blackout may be linked to a crash of Microsoft 365 services also on Monday night, which restricted user’s access to Outlook.com, Office.com, Power Platform, Dynamics365, and Microsoft Teams including Teams Live Event.
Earlier Monday evening, the city of Redmond, Washington, where the software giant is based, noted city phone lines and email accounts were down due to the Microsoft outage.
On a status page for its cloud services, Microsoft acknowledged the widespread systems issue and said ‘Any user may experience access problems for Microsoft 365 services.’
‘We’re working to identify the full impact and will provide more information shortly,’ the company said.
The Minneapolis Police Department in Minnesota, the Tucson Police Department in Arizona and the Delaware State Police were among dozens of agencies that first reported outages.
Yavapai, Cochise, and Pima counties, as well as Flagstaff, were experiencing issues with their 911 emergency lines in Arizona.
In Nevada, the Washoe County Sheriff’s office tweeted that 911 services were down in Washoe County, Reno and Sparks.
The Grass Valley Police Department, located 60 miles Northeast of Sacramento in California reported an outage affecting ‘some landlines and cell phones.’
‘Please avoid testing your phone’s functionality by calling 911, as our dispatchers are working very hard to try and work through this stressful situation,’ a Facebook post from the agency read.
Delaware State Police issued a statement on its website informing residents of the outage and technical issues with their 911 call services.
‘Delaware State Police Dispatch Centers are currently experiencing a state wide interruption in service. Anyone attempting to call 911 either by cellphone or landline will experience a busy signal,’ the agency said.
Around 30 minutes later, DSP said that their dispatch centers were fully operational again and were now able to receive 911 calls.
Meanwhile, in New York City, the NYPD said it was aware of the outages but said their department has so far been unaffected.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.