One of New York City’s two emergency call centers broke down for several hours on Tuesday, keeping more than 1,000 911 calls from being heard by emergency operators, a City Hall spokesperson said.
City Hall spokesperson Jeremy Edwards said the problem began at 3:13 a.m., when callers and 911 operators stopped being able to hear each other on “certain 911 calls” that came through a communications router at a public safety answering center known as PSAC II in the Bronx.
From then until 10:19 a.m., Edwards said around 1,700 of 5,659 calls that came into 911 were impacted.
“After accounting for alarm systems and duplicate calls, we believe up to 400 New Yorkers may have been unable to connect with a 911 call taker,” he said.
Edwards said the issue “has since been resolved, and PSAC II is running normally.”
“Our investigation into the circumstances of this incident is ongoing,” he added. “We are focused on understanding exactly what happened, ensuring that affected callers receive the appropriate follow-up and taking all necessary steps to prevent this from happening again.”
It wasn’t immediately clear whether anyone who called during the breakdown was unable to get an ambulance.