Calls to 911 are getting picked up faster and fewer are being “abandoned,” according to data presented to a joint public roundtable before the leaders of two D.C. Council committees Wednesday.
The director of D.C.’s Office of Unified Communications, Heather McGaffin, ticked off a number of data points she said are adding up to improve performance.
According to McGaffin, the office had 69 call takers in June of 2023. That number has since risen to 99 as of last month. The number of dispatchers has risen from 75 to 91 over the same time period, she said.
The added hires have helped with the speed that 911 calls are answered, McGaffin said.
“In June of 2024, 62% of our 911 calls were being answered in 15 seconds or less, and in November of this year, 91.06% … were answered within 15 seconds or less,” she said.
The office had been under scrutiny after a string of technical outages and incidents involving delayed responses to 911 calls.
At the start of Wednesday morning’s roundtable, Ward 1 D.C. Council member Brianne Nadeau, who chairs the Committee on Public Works and Operations, said there’s still little confidence in the 911 system.
“Residents are afraid that their calls won’t be answered, that first responders will not be sent to the right place,” Nadeau said.
Ward 2 Council member Brooke Pinto, who chairs the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, said D.C. residents deserve “a 911 call center that is fast, accurate and efficient.”
Both Pinto and Nadeau said they don’t believe the onus is on the employees who work to answer and dispatch calls, but that there have been systemic problems that need to be addressed.
McGaffin and Steven Miller, director of the Office of the Chief Technology Officer, walked the council members through the 22-point action plan their offices are working on in order to improve the system.
Pinto asked about the data that shows 40 of 64 shifts met minimum staffing goals, saying “that still seems very off the mark of where we want to get to.”
In August, D.C.’s Office of Unified Communications offered $800 bonuses for employees who showed up for every scheduled shift in a single month. McGaffin said bonuses are still being offered.
Nadeau expressed concern that when there are technical outages, 911 calls are then taken and dispatched using a pen-and-paper system, in which copies of 911 calls are relayed to dispatchers using on-site runners in the building.
When asked about the delay and how that impacts response, McGaffin said, “There is a delay, admittedly, but it’s not minutes.”
Despite some continuing concerns, Pinto said her impression of the progress of the 22-point plan “should give the public a high degree of confidence that our OUC and our system in D.C. is working.”
“It does not mean the work is over,” she added.
Pinto asked for continued progress reports as McGaffin and Miller work through the improvements.
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