911 center experiences more power outages, leaders working on solutions
By Jamie Kennedy
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ATLANTA (WGCL) — Atlanta leaders are speaking out after the city’s 911 center again experienced electrical issues causing radios to temporarily go down and the dispatches computer systems to go offline on Thursday night.
“It is concerning even though it was a short power failure. The back-up UPS power did not pick up and kick-in. I’ve honestly lost count how many times this has occurred,” said Dustin Hillis, Atlanta city councilmember and chairperson of the Public Safety Committee.
The union that represents the majority of 911 dispatchers says they are not surprised this has happened and have been warning city leaders for years about issues plaguing the center that put lives at serious risk.
“We made suggestions, we presented this, I’m talking till I’m blue in the face. Something needs to be done to fix these problems like yesterday,” said Gina Pagnotta Murphy, President of the Professional Association of City Employees union [PACE].
Hillis said a major problem is the facility where the 911 center is housed which the city doesn’t own. And says there are at least 10 years left on the lease.
“They’re not providing reliable power purportedly which is caused by water leaks, so there are water issues here. We need to have further discussions with the law department.”
He said he will be discussing with the city’s attorney about whether they are able to get out of their lease with the building.
“The city attorney’s office or whoever can work on getting out of this lease or getting the owner’s of the property to be more responsive.”
When the city approved the new police and fire training center, a back up 911 center will also approved and will be housed at the same location.
“Do we need to convert that to the primary facility if we continue to have these issues at our current facility and then look for another back-up,” Hillis said.
He also said if the city is not satisfied with the building’s response to the issue and they cannot break the lease. They could look into moving the center out of the building into a city owned facility to help find an immediate solution. And work to make sure they aren’t paying to lease the current building.
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