Computer glitches could be causing delays for ambulances and fire trucks in the district.
D.C. fire and police use GPS and other computer technology to track and dispatch fire equipment, ambulances and police cars. When 911 calls come in to the Office of Unified Communications, the technology shows where the closest first-responder is and dispatches them to the emergency.
But new hardware installed in the past few weeks has not been 100 percent reliable.
“The issues that we’ve identified, we think that we’ve been working through those,” Office of Unified Communications Chief Information Officer Teddy Kavaleri said.
He added that because it is a major overhaul, issues are expected.
Among the issues: New tablets showing wrong locations for fire trucks and ambulances.
“There was a glitch where some of these units were being misreported on their locations,” Kalaveri said. “Well as soon as we identified that, we came up with a workaround, so we’re working through it. And those issues should be almost eliminated if they haven’t been eliminated.”
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The problems have not caused any loss of life, officials said. They hope to have all the glitches fixed in the next few weeks.
Until then, firefighters and paramedics are using radio again.
