Boston Council Scrutinizes 911 Backup Systems After 2024 Statewide Outage

BOSTON — September 23, 2025 — Boston City Council committee hears testimony on 2024 statewide 911 failure and new backup systems. The Committee on Public Safety and Criminal Justice, chaired by Councilor Henry Santana and convened on a hearing order sponsored by Councilors Erin J. Murphy and Edward M. Flynn, examined the June 18, 2024, NextGen 911 outage — attributed to a firewall malfunction in a system managed by state vendor Comtech — that blacked out emergency calls across Massachusetts for roughly two hours, during which Boston EMS logged 33 incidents. Deputy Superintendent Christopher Walsh testified that the Boston Police Department has since installed an alternative telephone call-handling system, separate from the 911 network, that distributes calls across up to 20 phones at call takers' desks; end-to-end testing was pending one final phone number from Horizon as of Tuesday's hearing. EMS Union President Jason Yutkins urged the council to support state House Bill H-4120, which would designate EMS an essential service in Massachusetts and unlock dedicated funding for equipment and staffing. Boston Fire Deputy Chief Christopher Burke noted that the city's street fire alarm boxes — reachable by any resident for any emergency — proved to be "really bulletproof" during the outage and remain a critical and non-obsolete backup.