Met Police Hit by Major Tech Meltdown – 999 Calls Taken the Old-School Way
A massive system crash has crippled the Metropolitan Police’s communications hub tonight. Officers were forced to handle emergency 999 calls by hand after the Met’s vital Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system suddenly went offline.
Emergency Calls Rerouted as Backup Forces Scramble
The outage struck the Met’s GRIP and communications centre near Lambeth, forcing emergency calls to be rerouted to neighbouring forces, including Kent. Backup teams raced to manage the chaos as the police switched to pen-and-paper for logging incidents — a throwback to pre-digital policing days.
“The entire system crashed, and bosses started handing out pens and paper to keep track of 999 calls. It’s a nightmare. We’re doing everything we can, but this is far from ideal for a force of our size.” – Police source
What We Know So Far – Serious Disruption in London
- The outage began at 9:36pm on Tuesday, 25 March.
- Phone lines for 999 and 101 calls were down for nearly an hour, restored by 10:28pm.
- Some system faults continued, with full service only returning around 12:05am on Wednesday, 26 March.
The Met has yet to release a full public statement, but insiders warn the temporary manual system raises serious concerns about response times and incident tracking across London, where the Met handles thousands of calls every day.
Met Police Response and What’s Next?
A Met Police spokesman said:
- “Our well-rehearsed contingency plans were immediately activated and many calls were directed to neighbouring forces during the affected period.”
- “We have since resumed to a normal service and are working with our service provider to understand the cause of the failure.”
The Met is currently in the process of upgrading its ageing command and control systems, but tonight’s disruption underscores urgent questions about system resilience. Londoners are advised to keep calling 999 in emergencies, though some delays might persist as investigations continue.
