California spent over $450 million on a regionalized 'Next Generation' 911 system that was later canceled after rollout failures left dispatch centers with dropped calls, blackouts, and inability to get caller locations. The failed project shows that poorly managed tech procurement and overly ambitious regionalization can turn modernization efforts into public‑safety hazards when legacy systems are allowed to run without robust redundancy.
— Modernizing critical public‑safety infrastructure via complex tech contracts poses direct risks to lives and trust unless procurement, testing, and backup planning are reformed and made transparent.
Christopher F. Rufo
2026.04.29
100% relevant
Cal OES’s regional Next Gen 911 program (actor) spent $450M, produced documented outages (event), and was ultimately scrapped (decision), leaving the old analog system at risk of 'going dark'.
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