DC's 911 call center at 'a low point' amidst repeat outages, says advocate
WASHINGTON - There are growing concerns over D.C.’s 911 call center, as residents and leaders call for changes after system outages.
FOX 5 has confirmed that there have been at least five incidents involving a disruption in service at the Office of Unified Command (OUC) due to some form of outage. OUC is responsible for dispatching 911 calls.
Dave Statter has been tracking D.C. 911 for decades, formerly as a reporter and now as a public safety advocate.
"I would say after four decades of covering 911 in the District of Columbia, we’re at a low point. This is the worst I have seen it," Statter said Monday.
Statter’s comments come days after the latest incident involving OUC, when the city’s primary dispatch system went out for about 20 minutes early Friday evening. In a statement, the city confirmed it was a connectivity disruption and dispatches were done manually.
Statter recognized technology failures happen and 911 centers can operate without a computer, though he noted it requires diligence and training, which he believes needs improvement.
"Particularly the last four or five years of focusing DC 911 and OUC, the real issue besides leadership is the lack of transparency and accountability and the tendency as we see time and again of the administration wanting to cover up any mistakes of OUC. You can’t fix 911 if you don’t know what the problems are,’ he said.
Reports of disruptions have concerned some D.C. residents who say it’s not only unnerving, but go on to say it’s unacceptable.
"We are an international capital city. We are not just a couple of wards the Mayor may love. It’s an international capital, and it needs to start thinking about itself that way," Amy Henderson said.
Echoing a similar sentiment, Barbara Cox said she has had to call 911 for an emergency before for her husband.
"We’re talking about the nation’s capital. It should be pristine and accurate. People should be trained. People should be held accountable," Cox said. "Smaller cities, larger cities…they accommodate this very well."
FOX 5 reached out to the city for comment Monday when we followed up on the concerns. We were told OUC would not be available to comment on camera and the latest statement from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice on Saturday stands:
"A review conducted by The Office of the Chief Technology Officer, in coordination with The Office of Unified Communications, indicates the technological disruptions to the computer aided dispatch (CAD) were related to the performance of hardware which hosts the CAD software; and the District is working to implement the necessary monitoring and possible system upgrades. While CAD is the primary method for dispatching in the District for FEMS, MPD, and OUC, these agencies are prepared to, and train for, transitioning to manual dispatch, an industry practice, when any disruption occurs that impacts normal operations. Bottomline, OUC is still able to process and receive 911 calls when using manual dispatch and during yesterday afternoon’s disruption, no police or fire dispatch responses were delayed."