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Gavin Newsom’s 911 is a joke — one that cost you half a billion dollars

Gavin Newsom spent more than $450 million on a regional emergency call system that flopped, and was canceled. Meantime, the old system risks “catastrophic failure.”

California once built massive infrastructure projects — dams, highways, and aqueducts — that were the marvel of the world.

But those days are over. Under Gov. Gavin Newsom, California has been unable to complete, and hardly able to begin, construction on its high-speed rail system. Many other government projects are beset by delays, cost overruns, and dreams that never materialize.

Though the bullet train has become the most famous symbol of this dysfunction, the overhaul of California’s 911 emergency line is an even more important system failure.

During his first year in office, the governor confidently projected that he would replace the state’s emergency call system within three years, a goal that officials previously estimated would cost $132 million. 

But nearly seven years later, the state has spent more than $450 million on a regionalized “Next Generation” digital system that suffered such appalling failures and disruptions during its initial rollout that the Newsom administration scrapped it entirely.

Meantime, the old system is hanging on by a thread — and it’s only a matter of time, some believe, before it goes dark.

For years, California has needed to replace its old analog 911 system with a modern digital system that uses location, text, and video services to identify people in need quickly. Other states, such as Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, have single statewide “Next Gen” systems.

But in 2019, after years of planning, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES)........

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