CTO Gelobter: escalation to vendors and interagency bridge call
Gelobter describes how at 7:30 a.m. teams noticed increased alarm company calls, escalating to Motorola and Verizon. At 8:30 a.m. FDNY reported alarm calls not going through to NYPD. An operational bridge was opened at 8:45 a.m. including Motorola, OTI, NYPD, and FDNY for interagency coordination.
Alarm companies use dedicated 10-digit numbers to connect with emergency services.
They do not dial 911, as many are calling from outside New York City on behalf of their local customers.
At this point, the issue was escalated to the vendors Motorola and Verizon Communications.
At approximately 8.30 a.m., FDNY was also getting reports of alarm company calls not going through to NYPD.
Recognizing the expanded scope the issue was taking on, an operational bridge was opened for interagency coordination.
It included Motorola and the city agencies, OTI, NYPD, and FDNY.
On the incident response, on the incident response bridge,
that had all the stakeholders on it, the city team identified that problems were occurring with a subset of incoming 911 calls as well, not just alarm company calls.