California built a new 911 system. Now the state must use it

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OPINION – Fire service leaders know one truth that never changes: in an emergency, every second matters.

But the threats we face today bear little resemblance to the world that built California’s 911 network more than 50 years ago. We now respond to mega-wildfires and climate-driven disasters that require immediate action to save lives. Mass-casualty incidents, tragically, are no longer rare. And we now face the evolving threat of terrorism on California soil.

We are living in an unprecedented moment, and our emergency communications system must meet our demands. We cannot wait to get the state off the legacy 911 system.

State leaders understood this, and in 2019, California’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) contracted with vendors and earmarked taxpayer dollars to build California’s Next Generation 911 system – the most advanced emergency communications architecture available. Once live, it will modernize how calls, texts, data and location information reach dispatchers, helping first responders reach people faster and save lives. New capabilities can be added through application layers without replacing the core platform.

The state has spent over $500 million to build a four-region NG911 network that is built and connected to dispatch centers across the state.

But instead of turning the regional system on, Cal OES now intends to scrap it, and restart the project with a new, centralized, statewide NG911 system. Thanks in part to Sacramento Bee’s reporting, lawmakers took notice of Cal OES spending and plans to change direction – and are now actively engaged in determining how the state moves forward.

While recent media reports have raised questions about whether the regional NG911 system works as intended, it is important to note that Cal OES has not released any evidence that the regional NG911 system is unsafe or unable to be completed. That assessment is supported by an independent source. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, in a February 2026 report, stated that Cal OES “has not presented critical details” and that key questions are unanswered, including whether “the regional networks experienced systematic technical failures,” “what evidence is there showing that the transition to a statewide approach will solve the problems identified by OES,” and whether “the state needs to transition to a statewide approach to solve these problems, or can they be solved within the regional approach as it currently exists.”

If the state moves forward with a restart, California could find itself in a dangerous position –with residents being left on the legacy 911 system the acting director of Cal OES called “fragile” and nearing the end of its life.

Evidence of that fragility is mounting.

As seen in recent media reports, in January, an AT&T outage caused 911 call center disruptions in Marin County, with residents being told to go to fire stations should they have had an emergency. In February, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department experienced an outage of its emergency 911 system that impacted all 23 of its stations, and last August, a single AT&T central office fire in Gardena caused 911 failure across multiple Los Angeles jurisdictions. According to Cal OES’s own data, California’s legacy 911 system experiences an average of 16 outages every month.

Californians deserve to know the regional NG911 system is an option.

Other large populous states, including Texas, Florida, and most recently Illinois, use regional models specifically to avoid a single point of statewide failure. Pennsylvania adopted a centralized, statewide model – similar to what Cal OES is planning – and last year suffered a complete statewide 911 outage.

California already relies on regional systems to manage other critical infrastructure such as water and energy because regional designs provide redundancy and resilience against natural, technological, and human-caused threats.

Before the end of the decade, California will host some of the world’s largest events, including matches in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the 2027 Super Bowl and the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Millions of visitors will arrive, and global attention will be focused here. The demands on emergency communications will be extraordinary. We cannot allow the world to watch our 911 system fail on that stage.

To me, the path forward is straightforward: Lawmakers must ensure all the facts are being presented, direct Cal OES to finish deploying the regional Next Generation 911 system with oversight, retire the fragile legacy network as quickly as possible, and then evaluate whether any improvements or adjustments are needed.

California built the system. Californians paid for it. Now we must urgently finish the job.

Chief Eddie Sell spent more than 30 years in California’s fire service, working across both metro and smaller-sized agencies, and remains an active advocate for fire service workers across the state.