DC Council holding oversight roundtable on 911 call center

WASHINGTON — The DC Council is holding the first in a series of oversight hearings on the Office of Unified Communications, which runs the city's 911 system.

The chair of the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, Councilmember Brooke Pinto, announced a multi-prong plan to address longstanding issues with the agency earlier in September.

It includes monthly public roundtables, the first occurring Monday at 10:30 a.m. at the John A. Wilson Building. The topic is listed as Recent Operational Failures and Accidents.

Some of those failures include a dispatcher initially classifying a 911 call about the deadly District Dogs flood as a water leak and a five-month-old dying last month during a 911 computer outage.

Councilmember Pinto also said her committee plans to make routine unannounced visits to the OUC’s 911 call center this fall to increase insights and transparency into day-to-day operations, publicly reported metrics, and opportunities for improvements in emergency response. 

Furthermore, she introduced the Transparency in Emergency Response and Amendment Act of 2024 earlier this month – which will require the public release of after-action reports within 45 days of any incident for which there is reason to believe errors led to serious injury or death and require the public release of dispatch transcripts and 911 calls related to possible errors.

At Monday's hearing, safety advocates, advisory neighborhood commissioners, an investigative journalist, the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, and the Director of the Office of Unified Communications are listed as witnesses. 

WUSA9's John Doran spoke with Director Heather McGaffin Friday, when she said, "I hear people say that DC 911 is in crisis. It is not in crisis. It is a system that has been outpaced and overtaxed and we are making improvements so that the experience for the 911 call taker and caller are at the top."

An Assistant Watch Commander for DC Fire and EMS in the 911 call center said callers often give dispatchers incorrect information that sends emergency response to the wrong place.

"It's always OUC, it's never anybody else. OUC did this, OUC did this. No, OUC didn't. We did what we were supposed to do, other units didn't do what they were supposed to do, but nothing is ever said about them," Asst. Watch Commander Richard Sullivan said.

McGaffin said OUC is making improvements, including hiring five new IT personnel and offering bonuses for new hires and bonuses for employees that show up for all of their scheduled shifts.

About her appearance at Monday's hearing, she said, "This is about accountability, and we're open to that."

The topics for the next couple of roundtables are performance and transparency metrics, and technology and multi-agency coordination.

Monday's hearing on recent operational failures starts at 10:30 a.m.