NBC Today Show Reports: 911 outages imperil public safety in Cincinnati and elsewhere, by Jeff Rossen and Jovanna Billington

When Matt Woods saw a possibly drugged driver going down the street “like a bat out of hell,” he dialed 911. He says he “called for five minutes — no one would answer.” Bernie Rademacher had a similar experience when she tried to report a car smashed up against a pole. “I called 911, two, three times, and they never answered. it just rang and rang.”

According to an internal city document obtained by NBC News, there have been 10 911 outages since June of 2016. The latest one, just this summer, lasted three hours and 30 minutes. “These 911 systems have been designed and built for landlines,” said Cincinnati City Manager Harry Black. “Now we’ve got the proliferation of cellphones.”

Read/view report here:

https://www.today.com/health/911-outages-imperil-public-safety-cincinnati-elsewhere-t116531