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Emergency meeting held after CLE 911 failure

Posted at 7:50 PM, May 31, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-31 19:50:17-04

Cleveland safety leaders held an emergency meeting with Cuyahoga County and the city's 911 software vendor Tuesday afternoon after another 911 system breakdown Monday night.

After the meeting, city officials said Emergency CallWorks will "re-program the system so there is a better distribution of calls" to avoid further problems.

Earlier this month, an Exclusive 5 On Your Side Investigation revealed serious breakdowns in the city's emergency response system.

We found more than two dozens reports from CPD dispatchers about problems, including 911 calls placed on hold or lost.

5 On Your Side Investigators attempted to question city leaders about the emergency system failures during a news conference about the Republican National Convention security plan Tuesday, but city leaders initially refused to respond.

Assistant Safety Director Ed Eckart said, "We're here to talk about our planning and prep for the convention. We're happy to address that offline."

After the news conference, Safety Director Michael McGrath acknowledged there have been "bumps in the road" since the city moved into its new dispatch center last fall.

"We did have a failure for us last night for approximately 20 minutes," said McGrath.

He said the 911 problems are "unacceptable", but said didn't know what caused the most recent malfunction.