Kern County 911 Emergency Communications Center, Still Under Fire

A follow up investigation finds that the Kern County Emergency Communication Center responsible for answering calls to the County 911 system is still falling short of federal guidelines.

The County answers about 1,400 calls per day but during the investigation it was found that 581 calls took one to two minutes to be answered far longer than the 10 seconds required under federal guidelines.

While the County is taking steps to address the staffing issue they attribute to the problem, it looks as if the County Sheriffs Department may not even recognize that a problem exists.

Consider these statements made buy RoseMary Wahl, the Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy:

"Those are federal guidelines. We're not breaking any laws or anything by not getting to them in 10 seconds though we do strive for those."

"We're doing a good job. We're not getting a lot of complaints so that tells me we're responding to the communities needs."

However the grand jury committee doesn't feel the same. It said the Communication Center has "A perceived unwillingness to improve" its problems which could "affect officer and public safety."

Fiber Optic Cable Sabotage Leads To Loss of 911 Service and More

Last week someone cut through a bunch of fiber optic lines in Silicon Valley knocking out phone, cellular, ATM, Internet, Retail systems, and 911 service in theSan Jose and Santa Clara areas.

AT&T has offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the individual(s) involved. Originally AT&T offered $100,000 reward but increased the amount the next day.

Verizon Wireless and Verizon California also filed suit in Santa Clara County Superior Court yesterday against John Doe and Does (plural, up to 100), citing damage to its customers as a result of the loss of services for more than 20 hours on April 9.

The cut cables caused the loss of cell and phone service for more than 100,000 Bay Area customers of Verizon Wireless, including several law enforcement agencies, and more than 50,000 land-line customers of Verizon California. The suit doesn't specify damages sought.

Repairs were completed, and full service was restored early Friday, about 24 hours after the first problems were reported.

The Cables were cut in multiple places and wireless customers from almost every carrier were also without service, because AT&T's network is used to connect cell towers back to these carriers' respective national networks. Officials also said that residents in the San Jose/Santa Clara region were without emergency 911 service for much of the day.

San Jose Police Sgt. Ronnie Lopez said that the fiber cut appeared to be deliberate and the police department is treating it as a felony act of vandalism. The FBI has also been briefed on the case, although Lopez said that for now local officials are handling the investigation.

Anyone with information or tips is being asked to call 408-947-STOP or you can contact us here and we can pass the information along as well.

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