The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

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November 8, 2009

EPD telephone system down temporarily Sunday

By Robert Barron, Staff Writer

Enid Police Department phone system, except for emergency phones, went out for about three hours Sunday afternoon.

The system went off about 2:45 p.m., said Lt. Eric Holtzclaw, and was “off and on” until finally coming back up about 5:45 p.m. The new city telephone system is a voice-over IP system, and Holtzclaw said that should not have happened. City crews will determine today what occurred.

Emergency phones have multiple redundancy systems and were never affected, nor was the ability to contact the fire department or ambulance service, he said.

“We have a fail-safe system so it shouldn’t have done that, it should not have dropped the system down completely,” Holtzclaw said.

The system was being worked on by city technicians in the city hall building at 401 W. Garriott, next door to the police station. Holtzclaw said it is a new system, and no one anticipated it would bring down the police department system, but it was restored quickly.

Most of city government employees were not working Sunday and was not affected. Holtzclaw said the fire department Internet and e-mail also could have been affected. Fire Marshal Ken Helms said he received a notice from the city IT department the non-emergency services would be down temporarily Sunday while a generator was replaced. He was not aware there were any problems resulting at the fire department.

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