911 Outage Affecting Multiple States

Police tape on a blocked off road in a file image. Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images

Law enforcement agencies in multiple states have been grappling with outages affecting their 911 emergency lines, disrupting services in key areas including Las Vegas, Nevada, the entirety of South Dakota, and parts of Nebraska.

Specifically, calls to 911 from landlines are “not working at the moment,” according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD).

LVMPD advised residents who need emergency services to use their mobile devices to dial 911, assuring callers that dispatchers would be able to see their numbers and promptly return their calls.

The exact cause of the outages remains undisclosed, and authorities have yet to provide an estimated timeline for service restoration. In Las Vegas, no specific time frame was provided for the resumption of services after the outage started around 7 p.m. local time.

Officials urged the public to refrain from testing the emergency phone lines while efforts to restore service were ongoing. The failure to connect to call centers through the emergency number for police, ambulance, and fire services was confirmed by multiple reports.

Some Cell Phone Services Impacted

In Nevada, Henderson Police said the 911 outage impacted both landline and cell phone calls to dispatchers, while reassuring the public that text-to-911 services remained operational.

The department stated that Rapid SOS was still working and said dispatchers would return calls from individuals who attempted to contact emergency services. However, no definitive timeline for full restoration was provided.

Meanwhile, in South Dakota, reports indicated that text messages to 911 were still successfully transmitting despite the broader outage affecting the emergency phone lines.

Law enforcement agencies across the affected states have urged individuals in need of emergency assistance to utilize alternative contact numbers until full service is restored.

Authorities say they are continuing to investigate the cause of the outages while working to rectify the situation and ensure the uninterrupted availability of critical emergency services.

In Nebraska, the outages are affecting Dundy County, according to the local sheriff’s office. They advised that callers would receive a busy signal when dialing 911, and that the service provider for the service is “working diligently to restore service.”

Outages were reported in specific South Dakota locales, including by authorities in Brown County, Lincoln County, Miner County, Jerauld County, and Rapid City, KFYRTV reported.

This is a developing story.