WASHINGTON — A desperate plea to change DC’s 911 system that critics say is costing our neighbors’ lives. Dozens of residents testified at DC Council Judiciary hearing about repeated failures by the Office of Unified Communications: long delays and ambulances sent to wrong locations.
Thursday’s hearing also came six weeks after 10 dogs died during a flood at District Dogs in Northeast.
When a 911 call taker described the deadly flooding at District Dogs as a water leak, the agency director, Heather McGaffin said part of the problem was the agency had too many codes and not one to properly identify the true emergency.
"It makes me uncomfortable to say you can't answer some questions," said Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker to Director McGaffin during questioning.
And when councilmembers pushed the director for the incident report of that call, she said she couldn’t share the information and indicated an outside investigation could be the reason why.
"It's my understanding that exception is for criminal investigations,” said Public Safety and Judiciary Committee Chairperson Brooke Pinto.
“Well, it’s not an OUC investigation,” replied McGaffin hesitantly.
Director McGaffin, on the job since last February, said staffing shortages will be resolved soon, once 23 new recruits complete training in January. And even though she cited 77% of calls answered in 15 seconds or less, about a dozen residents testified that when they needed help the most they were put on hold or calls were simply never answered. Sylvia Soltis described the terrifying moments of February’s active shooter at Potomac Metro.
“I was rubbing the arm of the woman next to me so she would stay calm and not cry which I was afraid would alert the shooter of where we were hiding. The woman became startled, her shoulders jumped, and I realized I lost track of the gunshots while desperately listening for someone to answer my 911 call."
“I hung up,” Soltis said as her voice broke up with emotion. "Two months later, I was assaulted near my home in an attempted robbery. My calls and the calls of two witnesses were never answered by 911.”
Toni Barnes wiped tears from her eyes as she listened to Soltis’ testimony. Barnes testified that her 27-year-old daughter sustained brain injuries after a cardiac arrest.
"I believe it would have been a different result if 911 answered in an efficient manner,” said Barnes. “I was on hold off and on for 19 minutes. Prior to this Alexis was a healthy 27-year-old, besides asthma now she's suffering from low vision she depends on for everything. She has trouble walking, and I have to feed her."
"I wish Ms. McGaffin well but something else needs to be done and I think the task force bringing the experts in is the way to do it," said Dave Statter of Statter 911.
Critics are now calling for a taskforce with experts and residents to clean up the systemic problems at OUC. The council passed an emergency bill asking for more accuracy and transparency, but the DC Auditor says the OUC dashboard lacks details and the agency's claim to have 90% of the audit recommendations complete is inaccurate.
"Saying it so doesn't make it so, we require evidence," said DC Auditor Kathy Peterson.