Baltimore's glitchy 911 Computer-Aided Dispatch system is about to get grilled in public. After a string of outages that forced call takers and dispatchers to scramble with manual workarounds, the City Council's Legislative Investigations Committee will hold an informational hearing Thursday to dig into what went wrong and how fast the city plans to fix it. Officials from the mayor’s IT office, the Fire Department, and the Police Department are slated to testify.
Hearing on the Docket
The session appears on the City Council calendar as Resolution 25-0044R and is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. Baltimore City Information and Technology, the Fire Department, and the Baltimore Police Department are invited to walk council members through system maintenance, outage protocols, and the timeline and budget for replacing the CAD platform, according to the City Council agenda. The agenda notes that the meeting is open to the public and includes a WebEx link for people who want to watch remotely.
Why the Probe Matters
The hearing follows reporting and an official review that documented repeated interruptions in the CAD system. In its report on the June 24, 2025, in-custody death of Dontae Melton Jr., the Maryland Attorney General's Independent Investigations Division said officers requested EMS several times that night and no medic responded, and that the medical examiner later ruled Melton's death a homicide, according to the Maryland Attorney General's IID report. That report says officers waited roughly 40 minutes before transporting Melton themselves, and that prosecutors ultimately declined to bring criminal charges against the subject officers.
Officials, Costs and Vendor Questions
City leaders have described the CAD platform as aging and prone to bugs. Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley told local reporters, "Our CAD system is many years old, and quite honestly, it's failed about 25 times this year," as reported by CBS Baltimore. Replacing or overhauling the system is expected to come with a seven-figure price tag, with reporting putting the potential cost as high as $15 million, and the city approved a renewal with vendor CentralSquare while a software update was pushed last year in an effort to stabilize operations, according to GovTech.
What to Watch Thursday
Council members are expected to push for specifics, including a clear replacement timeline, an itemized budget, and a public accounting of past outages and backup procedures. The City Council agenda asks departments to explain "how outages of the CAD system are communicated and restored" and to provide a replacement timeline and budget, per the City Council agenda. Advocates say the hearing is a chance for lawmakers to force more transparency on vendor performance and contingency planning that affect everyday 911 reliability.
Legal and Community Stakes
The Independent Investigations Division acknowledged gaps in the timeline of the emergency response but concluded it would not pursue criminal charges in the Melton case. The family has said it will pursue civil litigation, and community leaders are calling for stronger non-police crisis response options. Local reporting details the family's plan to sue and includes relatives demanding accountability, as reported by WBAL-TV. For many residents, though, the focus is less on assigning blame and more on whether the city can actually guarantee help when someone dials 911.
Council watchers and public-safety advocates will be looking Thursday for concrete commitments on funding and a firm replacement timetable. The meeting starts at 4:30 p.m. in the Du Burns Council Chamber and is open to the public, with remote access available via WebEx. The City Council agenda contains the access information and materials for the session.
