OUC oversight roundtable hearing expected to focus on DC’s embattled 911 call center

WASHINGTON - Washington, D.C.’s embattled 911 call center is in the hot seat again and is expected to be the focus of an oversight roundtable hearing Tuesday. The hearing comes after several high-profile response issues including the death of a five-month-old and delays to advanced medical help when the baby's parents called for help. 

The head of the D.C. Council Judiciary Committee will be bringing in witnesses and officials to question what happened leading to some of these serious incidents and what’s being done to address them.

OUC oversight roundtable hearing expected to focus on DC’s embattled 911 call center

The Office of Unified Command, or OUC, is the agency that operates the city’s 911 call center. FOX 5 has been reporting on issues within this very important public safety agency for years. 

On the agenda for Monday’s oversight roundtable, the judiciary is planning to ask questions about staffing shortages, possible blown addresses, delays in emergency response arrival and technological failures.

Last week OUC Deputy Director Heather McGaffin defended the agency. "911 in Washington, D.C. is not in crisis," McGaffin, told FOX 5. "It's an overtaxed system. We took 1.8 million calls. That far outpaces any other state in the nation per capita. And we are doing things, making improvements, to keep up with that pacing."

Judiciary Committee Chair Councilmember Brook Pinto recently introduced legislation trying to bring more transparency to the agency and said she’d be holding monthly oversight roundtables along with unannounced visits to the 911 call center. 

OUC oversight roundtable hearing expected to focus on DC’s embattled 911 call center