Mayor’s Office vs. Councilmembers on 911 Call Center

ANC6B Public Safety Committee meeting, Monday, October 21. Lindsey Appiah, Deputy Mayor for Justice and Public Safety at center. Committee Chair Frank Avery is at lower left. Vice Chair Jody Kent Lavy is at upper left.

Mayor’s Office vs. Councilmembers on 911 Call Center

by Larry Janezich

Posted October 29, 2024

ANC6B’s Public Safety Committee, chaired by Commissioner Frank Avery, met on October 21 to hear presentations from three city officials on different public safety policies and issues.

Deputy Mayor for Justice & Public Safety Lindsey Appiah presented on the current decline of gun violence in the city.  She touted her office’s work on adapting the provisions of the Gun Violence Strategic Reduction Plan to DC.  She also talked about challenges at Office of Unified Command (OUC) and listed a host of those problems. 

CM At-Large Christina Henderson talked about the intersection of public health and public safety.  On OCU she said she didn’t understand why call taker jobs are entry level positions.

Ward 1 CM Brianne Nadeau ripped the Mayor for not making OUC a priority, saying there’s no excuse for callers being put on hold. 

The discussion of OUC, addressed by all three speakers, dominated the meeting.

Deputy Mayor Appiah acknowledged challenges: 

• Staffing is a huge issue, and said that 300 people recently applied and after going through “all the suitability,” 19 were offered positions – and that’s an ongoing problem.
• Technology and infrastructure problems including issues with Verizon which she claimed were responsible for calls being dropped.
• Mental and wellness of call takers – OUC is looking at infrastructure and technology – including AI – to address.
• Too many calls for emergency service which are not emergencies.
• Numerous diversion programs take time to handle, making calls longer.

She pushed back at some criticisms of OUC: 

• Charges of lack of transparency “when OUC is probably one of the most transparent systems if you look at 911 systems.” 
• Talk of (not meeting) national standards “when OUC actually is exceeding national standards.” 

She said, “Everybody from Director to the Mayor or myself are all deeply committed – nothing is more important than someone picking up when you call 911….The Mayor has made clear our 911 system has to be a no- fail system….

CM Henderson cited a bill introduced by CM Nadeau to “shake things up” at OCU and one by CM Robert White requiring OCU to provide more transparency.  She said that she didn’t know what plans there were for a hearing but said that they deserved one.  She didn’t understand why call taker jobs are considered entry level positions and paid like entry level positions while being such high stress jobs.

CM Nadeau – who joined the meeting after Deputy Mayor Appaih’s presentation and did not hear it – was highly critical of the Mayor and OUC Director Heather McGaffin, and made the following points:

• Dispatch center is in trouble and Bowser administration has not made it a priority. 
• Last July she (Nadeau) sent the City Administrator and the Director of OUC a request to share simple data points re agency operation.  There was no response, even after repeated follow up. 
• She cited legislation she has introduced to separate out Fire and EMS calls from police calls and have Fire/EMS referred to a communications center under DC Fire and EMS.  The legislation, she said, was modeled after a successful pilot program which transferred medical calls to a nurse triage line but “the mayor killed it…why so successful a program has not been implemented is a big question mark.  The bill would also require that the Fire Department report data on performance and errors to the city council and the mayor.”  She said she learned on Twitter that CM Pinto, (chair of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee) will not give the bill a hearing. 
• Tools being provided are not being used, such as $1 million in additional funding for hiring is not being used.  
• Alluding to CM Robert White’s bill, she said more transparency will help us because it brings home the point.  Many times you get public witnesses and you just get denial.  She said she did not hear the Deputy Mayor’s earlier presentation – but that (denial) sometimes happens when you get the Deputy Mayor of the Director of OUC – “Things are going great, things are fine…”  She says she is “underwhelmed and infuriated by various responses.” 
• Re the claim that OUC is meeting national standards. She said, “I think (Appiah) is probably referring to response times.“ 
• “There is no excuse for being put on hold when you call 911.  Period.  This is one of the most fundamental functions of government.  People assume when they’re calling 911 their call will be answered and someone will send help…but in the District of Columbia you can’t actually expect that.”
• She urged concerned residents to testify at an upcoming series of oversight round tables.  She said, “Use every opportunity there is to raise the issue no matter what the hearing is about.  Bring it up every time you can – the more you bring it up the more the agency will have to respond.  I’m not giving up on this – there’s no other option than success.” 

The meeting ended after committee vice chair Jody Kent Lavy moved that the ANC6B Public Safety Committee recommend that ANC6B issue a letter to the Chair of the city council Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety requesting hearings on bills by CM Robert White on OUC transparency and CM Brianne Nadeau on separating out calls to DC Fire Department and EMS which were not scheduled to receive a hearing and ask that they receive a hearing before the end of the current city council session.  The motion was agreed to unanimously.  The full ANC is expected to consider the motion at its November meeting on 12. 

Here’s a link to the OCU 911 Performance Dashboard:  https://ouc.dc.gov/page/911-performance-dashboard-beta