The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is starting the new year dealing with a system-wide outage of its patrol car computer systems, sending deputies back to the days of pen and paper.
And we're just three days away from 2025, when the system's software will become unrecognizable.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, a department official said, referring to the computer system meltdown that was expected when antiquated computer systems had to be migrated from 1999 to 2000. We called it “our own little Y2K.”
Sheriff Robert G. Luna said it could take the department several more days to resolve the issue, which currently has about 3.5 million employees in the law enforcement agency, which calls itself the nation's largest sheriff's department. The service area is said to be affected.
“Broadly speaking, the reason this happened is because this system is over 38 years old,” Sheriff Luna said in an interview, adding that the technology has improved since he took office two years ago. He added that he has been working on upgrades.
According to a statement from the department, multiple patrol stations reported that on Dec. 31, at around 8 p.m., the computer-assisted dispatch program in their patrol vehicles became inoperable as officers attempted to log in to welcome in the new year.
Since then, the department has been forced to go back to basics.
When deputy sheriffs in the field receive commands on issues ranging from trivial requests to emergency calls, they typically do so through the patrol vehicle's computer. But now, communications must be done by radio or cell phone, and deputies have to write down information on the scene, slowing down the department and tying up critical radio time, Sheriff Luna said. said.
Deputies are also finding they are unable to perform simple tasks in the field, such as checking driver's licenses or checking to see if someone has a warrant. Instead, you must radio or call one of the 23 patrol stations whose data systems remain operational, as was done in the days before the Internet connected patrol vehicles. .
The sheriff's office said the power outage has not disrupted the department's response to calls for service, and manual tracking is being performed at each station. Radio communications and 911 lines also remain fully operational.
Sheriff Luna said the system failure was “not a complete surprise” as the department has experienced outages before, but added that it was “never this severe.”
The ministry said it is seeking temporary and long-term solutions to the glitch.
Because of the sheriff's department's antiquated system, deputy sheriffs are used to having to do things the old-fashioned way. said the sheriff.
“In cases like this, this actually helps us to be less progressive,” said Sheriff Luna.
