WASHINGTON — The director of D.C.'s 911 call center is on the hot seat again. It's been almost six months since 10 dogs died during a flooding at District Dogs in Northeast. The DC Council has yet to receive the incident report from that day.
Initial reports indicated call takers mislabeled the incident, so first responders didn't know lives were at stake. But a second-by-second breakdown of what exactly went wrong that day — information in the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) report — has not been made public.
The council says the Office of Unified Communications (OUC) is not being transparent and hiding behind unknown investigations as the reason for not releasing the CAD report. Councilmembers say the District Dogs tragedy is part of a pattern of failure that is costing lives.
Councilmember Zachary Parker asked OUC Director Heather McGaffin about the CAD report during an oversight hearing Thursday.
"I understand what you're saying and I appreciate that," McGaffin said. "Sometimes when there's pending litigation..."
Parker cut McGaffin off. "There is no pending litigation," he said.
Parker expressed even more frustration because, while the report hasn't been officially released, it has been seen on social media.
The council also flagged concerns about 911 call takers, after reports of people calling 911 and getting a recording.
McGaffin says she's filled over 40 vacancies in her year as director, and all employees are now being trained as call takers.
"We're working very, very hard to decrease those (vacancy) numbers, but it's not instantaneous," McGaffin told councilmembers, "They have to undergo 16 weeks of training and not everyone gets through the training."
Sabrina Richardson testified that she resigned after 25 years as a call taker because she was unable to get help to someone on time. It was a delay she alleges was ordered by her supervisor, who was collecting statistics in the system.
"My resignation has been a relief because the blood is no longer on my hands," Richardson told councilmembers.
The oversight committee, in an effort to hold the OUC accountable, demanded the reports related to District Dogs to be released by 5 p.m. Thursday. WUSA9 also requested those reports. As of Friday morning, the reports have not been made public.
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