911 Dysfunction – CM Allen Faults Agency and Executive

CM Charles Allen addressed ANC6B’s Public Safety Committee last Monday night.

911 Dysfunction – CM Allen Faults Agency and Executive

By Larry Janezich

Posted September 26, 2024

(According to a story posted by ABC affiliate Channel 7 News, last Friday morning, nine DC news organizations boycotted a briefing held by the Office of Unified Command (911 Call Center) to protest the agency’s lack of transparency and the refusal of agency officials to speak on the record.  Later that day, a reporter went to a press event for Mayor Bowser during which she refused to answer questions regarding her response to the boycott earlier that day.  https://bit.ly/47OhmaD )

Last Monday, ANC6B’s Public Safety Committee, chaired by Commissioner Frank Avery, invited Ward 6 CM Charles Allen to talk about the troubled Office of Unified Command – the 911 Call Center.  (The following transcript has been edited for brevity.)

In his presentation, Allen said, “Not a week probably goes by that I don’t hear from somebody in our community that is talking about a horrible experience they’ve had with 911…. It’s dangerous….

I think what you’ve got is a systemic crisis that’s happening at the agency backed by an institutional failure at the executive branch of accepting responsibility and being willing to overhaul this agency.  I don’t think it’s going to be fixed with a single piece of legislation or a single director but I do believe you need to have both as a part of the solution.   I think it’s going to take years to dig out of where that agency is right now.  But it’s not go to happen until the Executive Branch acknowledges that there’s a problem and is willing to do something about it. 

I think from the Council’s standpoint it’s going to take focused oversight… and I think were at the stage where were probably going to have to have an independent monitor that is going to be able to put a different set of eyes and actions on it.  I think what we’ve seen is that the executive seems to try to minimize public knowledge of internal agency dysfunction.  

We need to combine (oversight) with higher budget priorities and budget investments. 

Another thing is the union that represents the workforce is not as large as the union that represents police and fire in terms of their voice being able to get out there.  So they sometimes lack the power other unions have. 

We’ve also had a turnover in our public safety cluster leadership which creates a sense of destabilization – no one’s hung on to that position for more than about a year or two at the most. 

All of that I think has created the storm were seeing right here. 

I want to be clear that we’ve got some really good people at UOC – they’re really dedicated folks – call takers and dispatchers – that are working really hard but are starved for the resources they need…..

We’ve got staffing levels not where they need to be.  We’re seeing over-use of leave, callouts, and burnouts – those thing start to accumulate.  There’s a lack of parity in salary and incentives with other folks in law enforcement and safety and I think we’ve got an agency and an executive that is unwilling to acknowledge and think about what is correct action….They’re afraid of corrective action on the work force, again, because they are so short staffed that if they take corrective actions they’ll have less worker force available…. 

The agency has to focus on how we recover from bad mismanagement that has taken place that put it where it is in the first place.  And I think they need an executive branch that is actually going to support them and be able to move them forward. 

We had the DC auditor take a deep and comprehensive dive into the OUC … they laid out an entire framework on how to improve – those have yet to be followed up on. 

We need all the ANCs focused on talking to city leaders and pushing on this.  So please don’t let up.  Make sure you testify – keep sending those letters – highlight what you heard from your constituents.”