A quarter-century after the world avoided a much-ballyhooed Y2K crisis on New Year’s Eve — a six-digit date format in computer software was feared to bring down planes and cause all forms of calamity when the year struck 2000 — the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department is dealing with a similar and very real existential crisis in its technology.
The department’s computer-aided dispatch system, which was implemented around 21 years ago, was not programmed to operate past the year 2024, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.
“Right now, the system is down until they figure out how to fix it,” according to Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station Sgt. Johnny Gillespie, who was working as the watch sergeant Thursday.
He also said the system occasionally goes offline for scheduled maintenance, and that deputies in the field are trained to provide written reports for their service calls.
All patrol deputies have computers in their patrol cars that are linked to the CAD, which provides updated information on service calls to a deputy’s vehicle in real time as it’s shared with the department.
Deputy Robert Jensen, spokesman for the station, said deputies are using the paper-log workaround, adding the unscheduled outage also prompted deputies to be creative.
Every deputy is issued a department phone, he said, and digital communications including radios and cell phones are available for sharing updates with deputies in the field.
“It’s important to understand that the department has had backup plans in place for years,” Jensen said Thursday, adding the communications between the agency’s dispatchers and its field deputies are still “very much functioning.”
“Our goal in this right now, what we’re kind of telling each other is to basically just refine our fall-back procedures and make it as effective as possible, make sure that everything is getting done with total flexibility, total readiness,” he said.
All of the department’s stations are dealing with the issue, which began around 8 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, according to an email from Nicole Nishida, director of communications for the department.
“It was determined that the computer aided dispatch (CAD) program which operates on the MDC’s (mobile digital computers) is not allowing personnel to log on with the new year, making the CAD inoperable,” she wrote in a statement attributed to the department, which cited significant challenges with outdated technology that have been occurring since long before Sheriff Robert Luna took office.
“Since taking office, (Luna) has emphasized the urgent need to improve and upgrade our internal systems,” she added. “In mid-2023, the department issued a formal request for proposals to acquire a new modernized, centralized CAD system that will greatly enhance our capabilities.”
As a result, the department is currently operating on self-dispatch while the issue is being addressed.
Calls for service are still being responded to and manually tracked at the station level, which need to be manually entered into the LASD’s online system at the end of a shift.
The technology creates a new burden for a station that’s facing staffing levels that are approximately two-thirds its traditional level.
Jensen said the system being down will create additional work for deputies, but not a delay in operations.
“Please be patient with our call-takers,” he added in a text message, as they are assisting patrol deputies with the documentation of their calls.
LASD officials did not have any estimated time for a return to their regular operations, which Jensen said deputies were eagerly anticipating.
