By Clara Harter
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department implemented a “temporary fix” Friday to get its computer dispatch system back online after it crashed on New Year’s Eve, authorities said.
Problems were first reported with the 38-year-old computer-aided dispatch system — known as CAD — around 8 p.m. Tuesday when deputies at multiple stations reported trouble logging onto their patrol car computers, officials told The Times in a statement.
This glitch forced the department to resort to old-school methods for managing calls, with dispatchers writing down call information by hand and then relaying details to deputies via radio. During the CAD crash, deputies were unable to run license plates or people’s backgrounds through their car computers.
These problems have now been resolved thanks to the temporary fix for the programming issue the CAD system encountered, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
The crash prompted criticism of the department’s outdated computer system and calls to address the issue.
Ex-Sheriff Alex Villanueva weighed in online, pointing to a letter he wrote to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors in 2022 in a post on X.
“It is not a matter of ‘if’ there will be a catastrophic and unrecoverable failure of the RMS [records management system] or CAD system, but a question of ‘when,’” he wrote in the 2022 letter. “This failure will produce a significant danger to the citizens of Los Angeles County, which can be averted through the immediate modernization and replacement of the CAD and RMS systems.”
Department officials do not deny that the system is in dire need of an upgrade and say Sheriff Robert Luna is working to address the issue.
“The department has long struggled with outdated technology, and since taking office, the Sheriff has stressed the critical importance of upgrading and enhancing our internal systems,” the department said in a statement Friday. “In his first six months of his administration, the Sheriff addressed the need to replace the archaic CAD, among other systems, and further develop a multi-year equipment replacement plan.”
The department issued a request for proposals for a new CAD system in mid-2023 and is currently evaluating potential options, the statement said. Testing of one potential system will begin next week in select patrol stations, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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