Battle Brews Over Leadership of DC 911 Call Center

D.C.'s mayor and some members of the D.C. Council are divided over who should lead D.C.’s 911 call center.

The call center handles more than 3 million calls per year. Over the past several years, there have been instances where call takers and dispatchers have made errors that had fatal consequences.

Karima Holmes, the interim director of the Office of Unified Communications, is Mayor Muriel Bowser’s nominee to head the agency. She stepped down from that position in 2020, several months before an audit blaming failed leadership for mistakes at the call center was released.

“I think that there are mistakes. There are mistakes at OUC before I got there, while I was here, but the first time. We have less mistakes; we make less. We make changes. But I do think that the criticism is unfair, is taken from one piece of information from one person or one group of people.”

Council member Charles Allen, who heads the Public Safety Committee, told reporters Thursday he thinks he has enough support on the Council to block Holmes from leading the agency again.

“I will be recommending disapproval,” he said.

“Over the course of last year from performance of the agency and to addressing auditor’s findings to the feedback we’ve heard from the public, I think that we’ve gotta have leadership in OUC from a different direction,” Allen said.

Bowser included Holmes in her holiday safety event Friday, showing support for the embattled nominee.

“A nominee gets a hearing on her confirmation,” Bowser said. “She gets an opportunity to answer questions, she gets an opportunity to present witnesses, she gets an opportunity here from labor partners and employees, so the Council members won’t have the benefit of that because there was no hearing.”

“I nominated Karima in spring,” Bowers said. “What’s wrong with the normal process of giving this woman a hearing?”

“We all have a job to do, and the Council member does, too,” Bowser said. “So, I’m not personally disparaging him, but this process isn’t right. The treatment of Karima Holmes is not right.”

Allen did not hold a hearing on Holmes’ nomination but did have an oversight hearing on the 911 call center.

On WAMU Friday, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said he would vote against Holmes.

Holmes feels she’s been unfairly treated.

“I know what I’m doing,” she said. “I have the credentials.”

Allen released a statement Friday saying there is no requirement the Council holds a public hearing on a nomination.

"The public and many members of the Council have had concerns about the leadership and operations of the Office of Unified Communications for some time, most recently stemming from multiple incidents where errors led to delays in emergency services arriving on scene and, tragically, loss of life," he said in the statement.

The full Council will vote Tuesday.