Law enforcement agencies in several states report 911 disruptions

Law enforcement agencies in Arizona, Minnesota and Pennsylvania were among those that reported 911 outages Monday, although they later said service had been restored.

The Federal Communications Commission said it was “aware of the reports” and looking into the issue but did not have details as to a scope or cause.

The Minneapolis Police Department was among several in that state that indicated service had been disrupted.

Police spokesman John Elder said the outage lasted for around two hours but had no information about a cause. There were “no issues of people not getting service due to outrage,” he said by email.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Emergency Communication Networks tweeted that it had confirmed 911 service had been restored “following a multi-state outage,” and that CenturyLink would determine a timeline and how many calls were affected in the state.

That statement did not specify a cause, nor did it say it was CenturyLink’s issue. Emailed requests for comment to the department and the telecommunications company were not immediately returned late Monday.

Outages were also announced by police in Reno, Nevada, where the cause was under investigation. The department later said service had been restored. Tucson, Arizona, police said that there was an interruption there but service was back up.

Outages were also reported by police in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, which is near Philadelphia, but service had been restored. Philadelphia police did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment, but had not publicly reported an issue.

The New York City Police Department did not have any 911 outage, a spokesman said. Neither did the Los Angeles Police Department, police there said.

source: nbcnews.com