Ariola presses on both agencies having to notify OTI about outage
Ariola emphasizes that both FDNY and NYPD—the agencies responsible for public safety—had to notify OTI about the breakdown, and OTI still didn't think the public needed to be made aware. She calls the seven-hour gap and lack of public notification egregious, reserving the right for a second round.
So both responding agencies, FDNY and NYPD,
were the ones that called you first and told you that there was an outage in your agency, correct?
Both PD and FD reported an issue being able to answer, I'm sorry, PD reported issues being able to answer alarm company calls and also noticed an uptick in the alarm company calls that were coming in.
And then FD started getting reports
from alarm companies that alarm company calls were not able to get through on NYPD.
And yet you still didn't think the public needed to
be made aware.
You still didn't even think we should make the public aware.
You didn't give them other options.
And you said, yes, it was rerouted from two to one, both different, one was in Brooklyn, one is in the Bronx, but yet
Over a thousand calls had gone unanswered.
I'm wrapping up.
Why wasn't the public notified?
Listen, systems break down.
We know that.
What's egregious here is that you had to be notified by the agencies responsible for the safety of this city
and that you didn't think it was important to notify the public that there was a breakdown and they could not get help if they needed help.
Thank you for the question.
I think it is something that we really do have to take a very, very close look at and understand what alerts and alarms could have gone off earlier.
I think one of the challenges is, was identifying
the scale and the scope of the issues.
And so as that process proceeded, right, there was a lot of diagnosis that needed to take place.
And so as part of, as that went on, the more we understood the scope of the issue and the scale of the issue.
The scale and scope of an issue when a 911 system goes down is critical.
That's what it is, critical.
There's no evaluating the scope.
The scope is critical, and it should have been addressed much sooner.
Public information should have been sent out much sooner, and the agencies that provide emergency services should have been made aware and should not have been the ones to notify you because they have
mechanisms in place that they could have then answered calls.
But instead, they had to notify you because they were getting calls that would not necessarily come to them, like from alarm companies.
I reserve the right for a second round, but thank you so much for the time.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Chair Riola.
We'll go to Chair Brewer.