Ohio, Seneca County - Y2k glitches at county jail

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Seneca sheriff Y2K bugs minor

Monday, January 3, 2000

Pagers, jail door locks fall prey to hidden glitch

TIFFIN -- Seneca County Sheriff H. Weldin Neff said Monday his office experienced minor bugs during the changeover to the year 2000.

Shortly after midnight, Jan. 1, the commercial paging system used to contact sheriff's office personnel and other county officials went down, and some computer systems in the county jail that had been deemed Y2K compliant developed glitches.

"We had the computer technicians in the jail a couple of weeks ago checking those systems. They went over everything and told us all the systems would function properly after midnight," Neff said in a press release. "That obviously was not completely true."

Computer systems that control electric door locks in the jail ceased functioning after midnight. Until the system could be placed on manual override, the electrically-operated doors had to be opened with keys.

Also, the computer systems used to book prisoners into the jail would not correctly assign booking numbers.

"I think it's obvious that we're not happy that we were told these computers would be okay when they weren't," Neff said. "I'm glad we got it in writing so that if there is ever any question, we were told we were year-2000 compliant. We were on the phone with them first thing this morning, and we're working to get the wrinkles ironed out."

The system used to page sheriff's office personnel and other county officials also did not function about a half an hour after midnight.

"The representative from the paging company was here today and explained to us that the system was apparently overwhelmed when the paging company received several hundred calls within a 20-minute period after midnight."

Source: Sandusky Register Online; Tiffin, Ohio

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/cgi-bin/LiveIQue.acgi$rec=24630?search

-- Lee Maloney (leemaloney@hotmail.com), January 16, 2000


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