{
  "id": "2026-10-22-university-of-southern-california-dps-phone-lines-disabled",
  "slug": "university-of-southern-california-dps-phone-lines-disabled-2026-10-22",
  "institution": {
    "name": "University of Southern California",
    "shortName": "USC",
    "state": "CA",
    "type": "private-r1",
    "alertSystemName": "TrojansAlert / @USCDPS",
    "enrollment": 49000
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2026-10-22",
    "type": "infrastructure-failure",
    "cleryCategory": "advisory",
    "resolution": "confirmed-threat",
    "headline": "Public safety phone lines go down, with alternate numbers posted for each campus",
    "headlinePublic": "Public safety phone lines go down, with alternate numbers posted for each campus",
    "summary": "At 1:16 AM PDT on Thursday, October 22, 2026, USC's Department of Public Safety posted that [its phone lines were temporarily disabled](https://x.com/USCDPS/status/2113182738484175130) and told people to use LiveSafe, call LAPD or dial 911. A second post at 5:14 AM gave Health Sciences Campus numbers, and a [restoration notice](https://x.com/USCDPS/status/2113445134096375814) followed at 6:39 PM PDT.",
    "outcome": "DPS phone lines were repaired and communications restored by 6:39 PM PDT on October 22, 2026, about 17 hours after the first post."
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "initial",
      "timestamp": "2026-10-22T01:16:40-07:00",
      "channel": "twitter-x",
      "verbatimText": "Phone lines to the Department of Public Safety are temporarily disabled. Use the LiveSafe mobile application or call LAPD at 877-275-5273. For emergencies dial 911.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://x.com/USCDPS/status/2113182738484175130",
      "sourceDescription": "@USCDPS post",
      "annotations": [
        "Read twice on 2026-11-09 (X search, then an independent post-id lookup); the two texts matched. HTML entities decoded; t.co links kept as posted.",
        "Gives an LAPD number as the University Park fallback.",
        "Distinct incident from 2026-10-22-university-of-southern-california-roski-attempted-aggravated-assault-golf-club: that is a crime alert; this is an outage of the DPS phone lines."
      ],
      "characterCount": 164
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "type": "update",
      "timestamp": "2026-10-22T05:14:05-07:00",
      "channel": "twitter-x",
      "verbatimText": "Phone lines to the Department of Public Safety are temporarily disabled. Use the LiveSafe mobile application or call the Health Science Campus at 323-442-1000. For emergencies dial 323-442-1200.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://x.com/USCDPS/status/2113242486369898758",
      "sourceDescription": "@USCDPS post",
      "annotations": [
        "Read twice on 2026-11-09 (X search, then an independent post-id lookup); the two texts matched. HTML entities decoded; t.co links kept as posted.",
        "Same opening sentence, but with Health Sciences Campus numbers; it appears to address the HSC community rather than supersede the first post."
      ],
      "characterCount": 194
    },
    {
      "sequence": 3,
      "type": "all-clear",
      "timestamp": "2026-10-22T18:39:20-07:00",
      "channel": "twitter-x",
      "verbatimText": "The phone lines to the Department of Public Safety (DPS) have been repaired. Communications have been restored.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://x.com/USCDPS/status/2113445134096375814",
      "sourceDescription": "@USCDPS post",
      "annotations": [
        "Read twice on 2026-11-09 (X search, then an independent post-id lookup); the two texts matched. HTML entities decoded; t.co links kept as posted."
      ],
      "characterCount": 111
    }
  ],
  "context": "An outage of a campus police department's own lines is filed as an alert because it changes how people must ask for help. The archive already holds a similar case, 2026-10-26-eastern-michigan-university-police-non-emergency-phones-down.",
  "keyFindings": [
    "Each post gave an alternate route to help, not just notice of the outage.",
    "The outage lasted about 17 hours across two posted sets of numbers."
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "@USCDPS: DPS phone lines temporarily disabled (LAPD fallback)",
      "url": "https://x.com/USCDPS/status/2113182738484175130",
      "type": "official-social",
      "accessDate": "2026-11-09"
    },
    {
      "title": "@USCDPS: DPS phone lines temporarily disabled (Health Sciences Campus numbers)",
      "url": "https://x.com/USCDPS/status/2113242486369898758",
      "type": "official-social",
      "accessDate": "2026-11-09"
    },
    {
      "title": "@USCDPS: DPS phone lines repaired",
      "url": "https://x.com/USCDPS/status/2113445134096375814",
      "type": "official-social",
      "accessDate": "2026-11-09"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "high",
  "tags": [
    "2026",
    "backfill-2026-10-12",
    "infrastructure-failure",
    "private-r1",
    "california",
    "phone-outage",
    "all-clear"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-11-09",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-11-09",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}