Statewide 911 system outage in Massachusetts is resolved, officials say
By Michelle Watson, Emma Tucker, Nic Anderson and Celina Tebor, CNN
(CNN) — A statewide 911 outage in Massachusetts has been resolved after the system was down for over an hour on Tuesday, the state’s Executive Office of Public Safety and Security announced.
“The Massachusetts 911 system has been restored,” the agency said on X. “The public may now resume calling 911 for emergencies.”
The State 911 Department is investigating the cause of the disruption, it added. The first outage was reported by the department at 2:17 p.m.
Just after 2:30 p.m., residents received a public safety alert message on their phones saying 911 services are down statewide and delays in public safety response may occur.
“CALL local Public Safety business line directly if you or others are having an emergency. More information will be provided when available,” the alert read.
“The current 911 system is down statewide, if you have an emergency and need assistance pull your nearest Fire Box, or call the Boston Fire Department at 617-343-2880. You can also get assistance by going to your nearest Firehouse,” the post read.
Police Commissioner and Boston Police Chief Michael Cox said earlier Tuesday that residents looking to contact officials while the 911 system was down could call local police departments for assistance, and pull the local red call box on streets and corners to alert fire/EMS.
The State 911 Department previously said it was aware the 911 system was “experiencing a disruption” and also asked residents to use the direct line for their local police instead, and to limit calls to emergencies only, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security said on X.
During a news conference discussing public safety for Friday’s parade to celebrate the Boston Celtics’ 18th NBA Championship, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said: “Never a dull moment, we just wanted to start actually with a notification that currently the statewide 911 system is down and calls are not going through.”
The mayor said the city was in contact with the state and with “all of the relevant officials to work on getting this resolved.”
“There’s lots of information out there but we will, we need to be covering this outage in the 911 system first,” Wu continued.
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