How California spent $500 million on a new 911 system that didn't work and was then completely scrapped

[-]

Coolio_1851@reddit

Why are we worried about what the state of California is doing when our federal government is blown $1 billion+ daily on a war with Iran that America is not even winning???

[-]

ravock@reddit

Another fraud scheme. It’s everywhere. I bet half of all tax payer money is being used fraudulently.

[-]

So...is your opinion that states should never try something new, or is if a State does try something new, and it's failing, they should continue to throw money at it for no reason, rather than scrap it?

[-]

NX18@reddit

Your logic, sir, is impeccable. And funny how that video says $450 million but this post says $500 million. Inflation these days is out of control!

[-]

AgonizingFury@reddit

Let's put the numbers in perspective, and compare it to "the private sector" which many of us tend to support as being more efficient than government (and it often is).

Tesla had revenue of ~ 22 billion last fiscal year and spent ~4.5 billion of that on R&D, a significant portion of which was likely spent on projects that didn't work out, and were scrapped.

California's annual revenue is 10x that of Tesla. This is 1/440th of their annual budget, and is likely a cost spread over several years. It's still significant, but it's not a huge deal, especially when it was spent on an attempt to improve public safety and services. I certainly prefer that over the same amount of tax breaks to billionaire owned companies.

[-]

ZorbaTHut@reddit

Why the hell did they have four separate contractors for different regions of the state? What possible benefit is there to splitting this up besides increased kickbacks?

oh right

[-]

Anen-o-me@reddit (OP)

Money

[-]

whybatman69@reddit

So the smaller contractors could meet regional needs that are different throughout the state, with a larger state wide back up system? It does make sense, just was not executed well which feels typical for California.

[-]

ZorbaTHut@reddit

I guess it's just unclear to me what differing regional needs could exist on the scale of "one quarter of California". It's not like they're chopping it up into urban and rural; in what important way is the north quarter of California different from the south quarter?

Also, no larger state-wide backup system.

[-]

whybatman69@reddit

The previous system was one provided for LA, southern Ca, Northern ca, and one for entire state backup. They are now going with two providers one primary and one backup. There very much are different regional needs within the state. Each county also runs 911 slightly differently, with more communication needs within the regional area. We also have cal fire, state parks and federal which all have different dispatching centers depending on the region, which is a whole different thing to unpack.

[-]

whybatman69@reddit

Here is a link to the actual article.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article312576329.html

As a working paramedic in California, the 911 system is a lot larger and more complex than many people realize. The current analog system is not adequate, and we need significant upgrades. There are positives that came out of this failed system, like text to 911 and location pings on cell callers. We have areas in the state like Big Sur that you literally could not reach help prior. It’s unfortunate that so much money was spent to go back to the drawing board, but sometimes it’s better to cut your losses instead of throwing more money on the failed system. The other thing the video failed to point out is any new system that comes forward will be able to use the new digital equipment that was already installed since the implementation of the failed system. It will help with overall cost of anything going forward.

[-]