Newsom Promised a Modern 911 System. $450M Later, It Still Doesn’t Work.

Gavin Newsom became governor in 2019 and promised to modernize California’s aging 911 emergency network, which still relies on 1970s-era analog infrastructure according to the Orange County Register. He criticized the outdated system as “astounding,” according to reporting from the Sacramento Bee. His solution was a Next Generation upgrade designed to bring emergency response into the digital era.

The effort collapsed instead. The Sacramento Bee found that the state paid over $450 million to four technology companies to build the new system. When launch day came, it failed. The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) then scrapped that regional design entirely and moved back to planning. A new system will require years to rebuild, and Cal OES has not provided any cost estimate.

This breakdown reflects a familiar pattern in California: ambitious overhaul, big budget, disappointing result. Projects begin with sweeping promises, only to turn into spending sinks. The most well-known example remains the California High-Speed Rail, which has been delayed for years and continues to burn money without completion.

Another case began in 2005, when the state launched the Financial Information System for California (FI$Cal) to modernize government finances. Nearly $1 billion has been spent, yet full deployment is not expected until 2032, as Dan Walters noted in CalMatters. The 911 upgrade now joins that list — expensive, incomplete, and back to square one.

Newsom was correct that California cannot rely on outdated systems to manage natural disasters and emergencies. But after hundreds of millions spent on a system that failed when activated, accountability still returns to him. The state must answer why progress remains elusive, and why modernization keeps slipping further away.