Sedgwick County’s 911 director says steps are being taken to prevent a problem like the one that the system experienced early Sunday.

The county’s 911 system was unable to receive incoming calls early Sunday while AT&T was conducting maintenance on a statewide system.  The county was told that redundant systems would prevent Sedgwick and Shawnee counties from having an interruption, but it was discovered around 2:30 a.m. that calls were going to a recording.   The county then switched to a backup system to continue operations.

911 director Elora Forshee told county commissioners this week that there was a glitch where calls were not coming in, and the redundancy was not working as promised.  She said during future maintenance periods, the 911 system will proactively switch to the backup system to prevent any disruptions.

Forshee said she is waiting on a report from AT&T on the problem, and she is also talking with the state’s 911 coordinating council to look at preventing any future interruptions in service.