Madison Kwiecinski – Editor-in-Chief 

Mvk5945@psu.edu

On Sunday, Oct. 23, at approximately 10:00 p.m. Erie County’s 911 system was shut down for about an hour. Those in the area received an emergency alert to their cellphones alerting them of the system’s malfunction and informing them of the alternate ways in which they could contact emergency services if needed. 

However, the exact cause of the system malfunction is still to be determined, it appears likely that someone shut down the 911 services intentionally. According to County officials, a cell phone which had been deactivated dialed 911 every seven seconds, preventing all other wireless callers from being able to make contact. 

The Erie County Department of Public Safety said this prompted an investigation, which will be handled through the PA Emergency Management agency. 

John Durlin, the 911 coordinator for the Erie County Department of Public Safety stated, “What a deactivated 911 cell phone is is a cell phone that doesn’t have service, so it does not have a contracted service with a service provider, but all those cell phones can still call 911 in case of an emergency.” 

Currently, it is predicted that one of two things occurred: a technical malfunction set down the system, or a cyber hacker intentionally shut down the 911 services. It took nearly an hour for emergency services to be readily available again. 

“The systems we have in place worked as they were intended,” stated John Grappy, Director of Erie County Department of Public Safety. “That allowed us to continue to work with the state and their partners to identify what the problem was and then resolve that as quickly as possible.” 

The investigation of what caused the 911 service line to shut down is still underway. If this were to occur again, due to the system installed last month, 911 services can still be contacted in multiple ways. In an emergency, 911 can be texted, called from a landline, or you can always contact the emergency services department if you need a direct line.