LAPD’s high tech headquarters hasn’t had working phones in weeks

Officers, detectives, commanders, administrators, and hundreds of other LAPD employees that work in its $400-million headquarters building in downtown LA -- including the chief of police -- haven't had working desk phones to handle non-emergency calls in weeks.

911 calls are handled at a different facility and have been unaffected by the trouble.

The business phone system's servers went down during a power test March 28, and the city's Information Technology Agency has not been able to resolve the problems, city officials told the I-Team.

"The ITA's response team is working around the clock to fix the phones," said Clara Karger, a spokesperson for Mayor Karen Bass, adding that a fix was expected "within days."

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"The phone lines that have been down at the LAPD Administration Building do not affect public safety," an LAPD spokesperson emailed, and said the department, "continues to work with our City partners to rectify the technical issue as soon as possible."

Offices in the building that regularly receive calls from the public include the Police Commission's regulatory units that issue a variety of permits and manage the City's official tow yards, Robbery-Homicide Division and other specialized detective units, and the records and identification bureau that provides copies of reports and other documents.

When the headquarters opened in 2009 former Chief Bill Bratton called it the, "most expensive, state-of-the-art police headquarters in the country," and officials boasted about its fiber optic data networks and ultra-low flush toilets.

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