DC Council to review 911 call center failures in Fall oversight hearings
WASHINGTON - The D.C. Council will take a closer look at the District’s 911 call center this fall, FOX 5 has learned.
The move follows several high-profile incidents in recent years involving delayed responses, incorrect addresses, and misclassification of urgent calls.
Brooke Pinto is the Council’s Chair for Public Safety. She announced Monday that she’d have oversight hearings in the fall, and introduce legislation aimed at creating more transparency for the Office of Unified Communications, or OUC.
The hearings will center on "operational failures," transparency, performance, technology, and coordination within the D.C. Government.
There will also be unannounced visits to the call center.
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An outage at the agency that handles D.C.’s 911 calls is under investigation after a 5-month-old baby in cardiac arrest died last Friday.
"I think one of the most important things to keep in mind is how important oversight is to this. Solutions aren’t always built into a new law or a new idea. It also requires daily follow-up and oversight and making sure the agency is holding up their end of the bargain and following the law as implemented and intended," Pinto said.
As for the proposed legislation, Pinto wants required releases of after-action reports when there’s reason to believe an error leads to serious injury or death.
It will also call for the release of relevant records from dispatch, along with transcripts and even 911 calls.
Over the last few years, FOX 5 has profiled stories of families who feel a better emergency response might have saved their loved ones.
DC councilwoman slams 911 call center for fatal mistakes: 'We need an immediate fix'
D.C. Councilwoman Brianne Nadeau says the 911 call center’s continuous mistakes are alarming and unacceptable. Tragically, it has even resulted in people and animals dying.
David Griffin had a mental health crisis and jumped into the Washington Channel in March 2022 and drowned.
Multiple 911 calls were made before he jumped, but the call was characterized as an overdose instead of a Priority 1 emergency, according to a lawsuit filed by the family against the District.
Aujah Griffin is his daughter who’s been advocating for changes and improvements to OUC since her father died but has been frustrated by the lack of progress.
She said she hopes this time is different.
"These types of things, when you see other people advocate, especially for the same things that you’re advocating for, it makes a world of difference. But, um, I’ll believe it when I see it, that’s sort of where I am at this point. I haven’t seen anything that sticks. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high," Griffin said.
Regarding Griffin’s death, an OUC spokesperson told WTOP, which prompted a review, and there was room to improve the response.
The lawsuit is still pending.
Concerns raised after DC 911 call center experiences 6th outage this year
D.C.’s 911 call center is once again under fire after their system went down Friday evening. This comes after a number of calls for change from residents and city leaders following delayed response times that have led to the death of animals and people.
For its part, in response to another death, OUC said last month they’re continuing to work on improving technology, bringing in more staffing, and improving the agency which they said is staffed with good, hardworking people.
In a statement to FOX 5 Monday, OUC said it’s committed to transparency and improving emergency communications in the District.
"OUC is committed to transparency about how we critically evaluate performance to understand root causes, integrate best practices, and quickly implement changes in order to continuously improve 911 service for the District of Columbia," the statement reads.