Expand / Collapse search
☰

Polk County 911 service restored after outage

By FOX 5 Atlanta Digital Team
FOX 5 Atlanta
Polk County
Published May 17, 2026 12:31 PM EDT
Published May 17, 2026 12:31 PM EDT

The Brief

    • A Polk County 911 service outage on Sunday has been restored after officials were forced to alter how residents can contact local first responders.
    • Dispatchers successfully moved phone traffic to a neighboring communications center to keep standard calling lines open during the outage.
    • Officials released three secondary phone numbers for residents who experience issues reaching help through traditional means. Those numbers are no longer usable.

POLK COUNTY, Ga. - Polk County emergency services have been restored to normal after operating under a phone service disruption Sunday, prompting officials to activate backup calling lines and reroute calls to a neighboring county. 

What we know:

Polk County Emergency Management sent a warning Sunday saying that the primary Polk County 911 lines are experiencing an outage. Dispatchers managed to move the lines, so calls are currently being sent to Bartow County.

Emergency officials stressed that this situation is a real emergency and not a test. Authorities reminded residents that calling the emergency system for a non-emergency is against the law.

The lines have now been restored and residents can resume calling 911. 

The Source: The information in this story was gathered from the Polk County Emergency Management.

Polk CountyCrime and Public SafetyNews