Dallas council to spend $100k on extra siren security

Dallas City Councilmembers voted Wednesday to pay $100,000 more to its siren contractor to increase security with the city's current system.

The emergency agenda item said the move to pay more money is necessary due to an imminent threat to public safety after someone triggered all of the sirens late Friday using a radio signal.

The council learned Wednesday that while the sirens went off for nearly an hour and a half, the city was getting more than six to eight times the normal number of 911 calls. Some people had to wait as long as six minutes to get thru to a call taker during the ordeal.

The Office of Emergency Management eventually managed to shut the system down at 1:20 a.m. Saturday.

Councilmember Philip Kingston says he could not get into technical details for security reasons, but he did say the staff has earned his confidence moving forward after closed-door discussions.

City Manager T.C. Broadnax said the FBI is assisting the Dallas Police Department to find the person responsible. Investigators believe the hack came from the Dallas area.

Broadnax now wants to examine other city departments for similar weaknesses.