911 outages plague Palm Springs, other area cities again; officials demand action

As Palm Springs experienced its fifth 911 outage since August 2023 on Thursday evening — leaving residents unable to reach emergency services — city officials expressed frustration and called for immediate action to address the recurring problem.

During the regular meeting of the Palm Springs City Council, Police Chief Andy Mills reported that the 911 system went down around 8:30 p.m., affecting not only Palm Springs but also neighboring cities including Cathedral City and Indio. His reaction was similar to that of impacted residents.

“I’ve been a cop for almost 44 years and I don’t ever remember [a] 911 system going down,” Mills said. “It’s gone down five times. This is completely unacceptable.”

The outage marks the latest in a series of disruptions that have plagued the city’s emergency communication system since Hurricane Hilary struck the region in August 2023. That has led to growing frustration with telecom providers Frontier and AT&T, which have cited various explanations for the failures.

“They point fingers at each other,” Mills said. “They have all the excuses in the world. But it is unacceptable because our community is at risk when they can’t get ahold of the police or the fire department or paramedics.”

City Manager Scott Stiles echoed the sentiment, describing the situation as “very frustrating” for the community, police department, and fire department.

The causes of the outages remain unclear, with Mills suggesting a range of possibilities including sabotage, vandalism, and environmental factors.

As for possible solutions, “We also need a fix from the state level to have redundancy built into our 911 system so this does not happen,” Mills said. “And that is not there right now.”

Mayor Ron deHarte inquired about potential legal options during the meeting, prompting the city attorney to agree to explore avenues with the police chief and city staff.

Just as they’ve done with all other outages, on Thursday Mills said police and fire personnel implemented defensive measures to maintain public safety. These included increasing field presence and alerting officers to be vigilant for residents attempting to flag them down for assistance.

The city also attempted to alert the public via text messages, and communication through social media and local news outlets, providing alternate phone numbers to call to report emergencies.

“What we do is go into a defensive posture, try to put as many people we can in the field, spread out throughout the city and tell our people to be very alert for flag downs, people waving their arms at us,” Mills explained.

The fire department also adapted by stationing personnel at the front of their buildings to receive people seeking help directly.

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