Emergency call system back up, 'text to 911' taken down in Suffolk

Suffolk's 911 emergency call system is operating as normal Tuesday evening after going down earlier in the day but the department's "text to 911" system is now unavailable for software maintenance, officials said.

County police said the 911 system went down early Tuesday, likely because of a programming glitch that appeared to affect many East End police departments. During the outage, the department's backup system was working and police officials were able to take 911 calls.

Nassau law enforcement is not affected, county police officials said.

The texting program, which allows cellphone customers to send a message to the 911 call center in Yaphank during an emergency, will be unavailable while maintenance is performed on the software, officials said.

In the event of an emergency, residents are asked to dial 911 for a police or fire department response. Residents can also dial 631-852-COPS — the nonemergency police number.

Police in Riverhead and Southampton said they also experienced 911 call system problems earlier in the day but were back online Tuesday evening.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com,robert.brodsky@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”