California lawmakers move to take more oversight of delayed 911 project
California lawmakers want more oversight over a delayed effort to modernize the state’s 911 system, which has already cost taxpayers $450 million and is not expected to be complete until 2030.
During a Thursday Senate budget subcommittee hearing, Sen. Laura Richardson, D-San Pedro, asked the overseeing agency to provide the Legislature with monthly progress reports of the Next Generation 911 project and committed to additional oversight hearings.
State officials decided last year to end the contracts with the current regional vendors of the Next Generation 911 system after encountering call routing and service issues. California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services leaders decided to redesign the system, using a statewide approach, but the agency did not provide lawmakers with an estimated cost for the project.
Before lawmakers began grilling Cal OES staff about the project, Acting Director Christina Curry said, “This is a top priority for our organization, there’s no question about it. We are fully committed to implementing a reliable, secure, Next Generation 911 network for California.”
Earlier this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Caroline Thomas Jacobs as the new Cal OES director though the new appointee was not present at Thursday’s hearing.
Cal OES officials said that some of the investments already made in the 911 system can be repurposed by the new vendor the agency is in the process of selecting. But some initial costs, which totalled $76 million, will essentially be needed again for installation purposes. Cal OES is not asking for additional funding beyond the $181 million already proposed in the governor’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
Richardson noted that earlier in the day Sen. Henry Stern, D-Sherman Oaks, who chairs the Senate Emergency Management Committee, approached her on the Senate floor to propose conducting joint oversight of the project. Richardson said she would “take them up on this offer.”
Based on the recommendations of the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, Richardson asked the legislative staff to reach out to the state auditor to evaluate the project. Last month, a Republican assemblymember asked the Joint Legislative Audit Committee to approve a formal audit request of the Next Generation 911 project.
The project has come under greater scrutiny in recent months from federal authorities and state legislators. Last month, a Republican lawmaker introduced legislation to increase oversight of the project.
After listening to testimony from Steve Yarbrough, Cal OES’ deputy director of public safety communication who oversees the project, California senators expressed alarm by the lack of available answers to questions raised by the LAO.
”I’m at a loss at so many issues that have to be dealt with,” said Sen. María Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles. “It doesn’t seem to be your plan to address these serious concerns.”
The regional design that the state spent so much money building out in 2019 was built on the “collective wisdom” that experts had at that time, Yarbrough said. But since then, Cal OES and other states making the transition to a more modern 911 system have learned a lot.
“The regional structure that we deployed, nobody has ever successfully adopted and implemented,” Yarbrough said.
Yarbrough said the regional structure is not in line with the National Emergency Number Association standards, though Cal OES contracts required that the regional vendors build a system that was compliant with those requirements.
Documents shared by NGA, one of the providers, indicate that at least two of the four vendors, including NGA and Synergem Technologies, passed NENA standard compliance tests.
Opponents of the switch to the statewide system have pointed out that statewide 911 outages have occurred in the past, including one in Pennsylvania in 2025.
The Next Generation 911 effort is not subject to the California Department of Technology’s Project Approval Lifecycle process, which provides oversight over other large state technology projects. State law explicitly excludes public safety communications, such as 911 systems, from CDT’s oversight requirements, an agency spokesperson said.
Durazo also expressed concern that the project would not be complete ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, when the region will see a major influx of visitors. Cal OES has said that it will prioritize connecting dispatch centers in Los Angeles to the upgraded system with the hope that the benefits of Next Generation 911, which include enhanced location services and other methods of contacting emergency services, are available during the Olympics.
“We recognize our obligation is to move quickly and do it right,” Curry said.
This story was originally published March 5, 2026 at 4:51 PM.
