Deputies are stuck using radios with Los Angeles County's dispatch system out of commission

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The archaic computer dispatch system for the nation's largest sheriff's department remained out of commission on Thursday after crashing on New Year's Eve, forcing deputies to handle all calls by radio, authorities said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials first learned about the problem around 8 p.m. Tuesday, when deputies at several sheriff's stations were unable to log in to the mobile computers in their patrol cars, the department said in a statement.

The department said its computer-aided dispatch program — known as the CAD — was “not allowing personnel to log on with the new year, making the CAD inoperable.”

“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 are being manually tracked at the station level,” the statement said.

Service remains uninterrupted and radio communications and 911 lines are fully operational, officials said.

It wasn't clear Thursday what caused the problem or how long it will take to fix. Department spokesperson Nicole Nishida said there was no indication the outage resulted from a malicious attack, describing it as a “technical issue.”

The department has faced challenges with outdated technology for years. Since taking office in December 2022, Sheriff Robert Luna has “emphasized the urgent need to improve and upgrade our internal systems.” In mid-2023, the department formally requested proposals to acquire a new, centralized CAD system. This week's statements haven't said where the modernization effort stands.

On Wednesday, ex-Sheriff Alex Villanueva posted on the social media site X a 2022 letter to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors requesting funding for a new computer-aided dispatch system. The letter said the existing system was so old it couldn’t comply with data collection requirements.