California Cities Face Chaos as 911 Systems Fail

WHO:

[Not stated] - NY Post - Two major 911 systems in California were affected.

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - Oakland Police Department, Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, Santa Barbara Police Department, Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, AT&T, and T-Mobile were among the agencies and companies involved.

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince tweeted that there had been “millions” of attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in PHP.

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - An AT&T spokesperson said damage to another provider’s fiber infrastructure was affecting emergency-call routing for some AT&T mobility customers.

WHAT:

[Not stated] - NY Post - Two major 911 systems across California suddenly shut down, “sparking chaos.”

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - 911 and other emergency-service disruptions were reported in at least three areas: Oakland, Riverside County, and Santa Barbara County.

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - Oakland police said the city’s Computer-Aided Dispatch system froze and displayed an error message. All 911 calls were transferred to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, and dispatchers were moved to a local fire dispatch station.

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - Oakland police said, “We are responding only to Priority One calls.”

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - Santa Barbara police advised people unable to reach 911 to call the department’s 24/7 Dispatch Center at 805-882-8900; text-to-911 did not appear to be affected.

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - Riverside County said the outage affected “some cellular users’ ability” to call 911. People unable to connect were advised to call 951-776-1078.

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - A Riverside County Sheriff’s Office representative said “there’s issues” with 911, but it was “not completely out.” The office said some cell phone users could still call 911.

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - Santa Barbara officials urged residents not to call 911 to test the outage, warning that dispatchers might receive their numbers and call back.

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - T-Mobile had not immediately responded to emailed questions about the outages.

WHERE:

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - Disruptions were reported in Oakland, Riverside County east of Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara County on California’s central coast.

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - AT&T said fiber damage was affecting 911 call routing for some of its mobility customers in the Los Angeles area; Oakland is about 400 miles north of Los Angeles.

WHY:

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - AT&T attributed the Los Angeles-area disruption to damage to another provider’s fiber, “potentially linked to theft.” The cause and duration were unknown.

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - It was unclear whether the outages were connected to “Black October,” PHP vulnerabilities, or whether the Los Angeles-area disruption was related to Oakland’s problems.

HOW:

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - Oakland’s IT department was working with AT&T to restore internet and phone services.

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - AT&T said restoration work was ongoing and that its teams remained engaged.

[Not stated] - Gizmodo - Santa Barbara officials said unnecessary test calls could lead dispatchers to call users back, taking time away from emergency responses.

(UPDATED October 22, 2026 22:15 UTC)

Emergency 911 service was disrupted in several parts of California, including Oakland, Riverside County and Santa Barbara County. In Oakland, the police department’s computer-aided dispatch system froze, sending all 911 calls to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and moving dispatchers to a fire station. Police said they were responding only to Priority One calls. Santa Barbara officials told people who couldn’t reach 911 to call the department’s dispatch center, while text-to-911 appeared to remain available. Riverside County said some cell users were unable to connect, though 911 service was not completely down. AT&T reported that damage to another provider’s fiber infrastructure was disrupting emergency-call routing for some of its customers in the Los Angeles area, potentially due to theft. The cause and duration remain unknown, and it’s unclear whether the disruptions are connected. Oakland and AT&T said restoration work was underway.