Minutes after visiting the controversial 911 call center in Washington, DC, Council Member Brooke Pinto unveiled a series of proposed reforms aimed at enhancing oversight and transparency.
In announcing the measures, Pinto stated, “We need to have a 911 call center filled with transparency, accuracy, and speed. The residents and visitors of DC deserve it.”
The center, officially known as the DC Office of Unified Communications (OUC), claims to be one of the busiest in the nation, responding to nearly 1.8 million emergency calls each year. According to DC officials, the system has experienced 18 outages this year, with eight being widespread, almost all occurring since late May.
During a shutdown in July, a 5-month-old baby died due to confusion over which units to dispatch, as call logs now indicate. It remains unclear whether a quicker response could have saved the child’s life. OUC Director Heather McGaffin stated last month that no one on her team was to blame.
Now, McGaffin will face pressure to more effectively address the troubling system and keep DC residents informed about progress and issues.
Pinto, who chairs the Council’s Judiciary Committee, committed to holding monthly oversight hearings starting this month to determine what needs fixing at the 911 center. She added that she would make unannounced visits to the center every two weeks.
“Solutions are not always found in a new law or a new idea,” Pinto emphasized on Monday. “It also requires daily follow-up and oversight to ensure the agency, as you say, holds up its end of the bargain, following the law.”
Additionally, Pinto is proposing legislation that would require the OUC to publish after-action reports within 45 days of possible 911 failures resulting in serious injuries or fatalities. These reports would include detailed 911 call logs, call transcripts, and recordings. The DC 911 office has previously refrained from releasing such recordings, citing privacy concerns for callers.
The after-action reports would be conducted by the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, with input from the OUC, DC police, and the city’s fire and emergency medical services. This would allow the OUC to be part of its own review process.
When asked about the potential for an external agency to conduct the reviews, Pinto told our sister station News4 that involving DC police and firefighters would promote transparency.
“This isn’t about assigning blame. It’s about a serious look at what went wrong so we can make improvements,” she underscored.
Questions posed to the OUC and the mayor’s office regarding the proposal went unanswered Monday afternoon.
In a statement, an OUC spokesperson told News4: “The OUC is committed to transparency regarding how we critically evaluate performance to understand root causes, integrate best practices, and quickly implement changes to continuously improve 911 service for the District of Columbia.”
This latest initiative is not the first time the DC Council has sought to hold the 911 center accountable. The Council previously passed a law mandating the release of metrics showing how long it actually takes to dispatch a call. The OUC has not complied with that part of the law, instead publishing other data. Pinto indicated that she was told this would happen before October 1. The OUC did not comment when asked by the investigation team.
In recent weeks, the News4 investigative team has reported on outages, police investigations, and longstanding staffing issues.
The team of Mayor Muriel Bowser rolled out a 22-point plan to address the OUC’s problems. A major highlight included enhanced technology to reduce outages, but many of these solutions will not be achievable overnight. For instance, DC leaders noted that replacing outdated servers could take months.
The Council is not currently in session but is scheduled to reconvene later this month.