A mom says failures in Baltimore's 911 system led to her son's death. City leaders are promising a fix.

At an investigative hearing, Baltimore's chief information officer said the 20-year-old computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system that links city fire, police and 911 departments will be replaced, but it will likely take several years. 

The city has now secured state and federal funding for the project, he said. 

Eleshiea Goode, whose son Dontae Melton died after officers could not get a medic during a failure of the CAD system, pleaded with city leaders to take action during emotional comments at the hearing Thursday night. 

Tragedy strikes 

On June 24, 2025, at West Franklin Street and North Franklintown Road, Dontae Melton's condition was quickly getting worse. 

Police restrained the father of two during a mental health crisis and called for a medic, but it never came. 

The Computer-Aided Dispatch, or CAD, system—the lifeline of communication between police, fire and 911 went down, possibly due to the heat.

Baltimore's police commissioner said during a previous hearing that it was one of multiple breakdowns in that critical system last year alone. 

It took almost an hour before an officer finally drove Melton to Grace Medical Center, which is less than five minutes away. 

Melton later died. 

During a hearing into the CAD system's failures, Melton's mother spoke directly to city council members.

"…The CAD system—the backbone of emergency response—was down. Because of that failure, the ambulance never came. My son lay on scorching pavement, struggling to breathe, while the people standing over him treated his suffering as something to laugh at," Eleshiea Goode said. 

Goode stressed, "I am here because my son asked for help, and instead of receiving help, he died in the middle of a preventable system collapse."

Earlier this year, investigators with the office of the Maryland Attorney General declined to charge any of the officers in the case. 

"I am not here to villainize every officer. I am here because a system that fails at dispatch, fails at crisis response, and fails at basic human dignity is a system that will fail again," Goode said Thursday, "And no family should ever have to stand where I am standing. I'm asking you to fix what broke my son's life."

Goode called for "a CAD system that must never go dark again, crisis-response training that prepares officers to recognize distress, not escalate it, and accountability that ensures no one's suffering is treated as a joke."

She said, "My son mattered. His life mattered. The changes you make here can protect the next person who calls for help and deserves to live long enough to receive it."

Where Baltimore's CAD system stands now

T.J. Mayotte, the chief information officer for Baltimore City Information Technology, told council members that Baltimore had received roughly $12 million in state and federal funds to replace the CAD system.

He noted that in Denver, the project took four years. He was hopeful it could be done in less time in Baltimore.

Mayotte said the city is about to start the procurement and bidding process for a vendor.

In the meantime, he noted the CAD system had not failed at all in 2026.

Concerns about timeline 

Baltimore City Council president Zeke Cohen, who has spearheaded efforts to investigate the CAD system, said he was appreciative of the work that had been done but was concerned that it could take years to replace the aging system and urged those working on the project to get the new system up and running as quickly as possible. 

Cohen noted the CAD system "allows Baltimore to send the right responders to the right place at the right time."

"Having a reliable CAD system is a top priority for me and for my colleagues on this city council. For years, our IT department has warned that our CAD system is aging and facing operational challenges. Given how critical this infrastructure is, and the consequences of outages, the council has sought a plan for its replacement. In fact, I've spent the past year raising the alarm about the condition and performance of CAD," Cohen said. 

He praised the administration of Mayor Brandon Scott for working on a fix and receiving funding to do so.

But he warned, "There can be no failures of CAD as it is so essential to our ability to protect and serve our residents, as well as keep our police and firefighters safe."