Heather McGaffin, director of the District’s Office of Unified Communications spoke to the media for the first time Monday along with other DC public safety officials.
What to Know
- The computer system used to dispatch firefighters and paramedics has had 18 disruptions since December 2023, seven of those outages were widespread, government officials said Monday.
- One of those outages, during which a 5-month-old baby died, is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department. The police investigation is looking at whether the system was intentionally taken offline.
- Staffing shortages have plagued the 911 center. The OUC director said $800 bonuses offered to staff who show up to all their shifts every month have been "wildly" successful.
A slew of unplanned computer dispatch outages, major staffing shortages and a criminal probe hang over Washington, D.C.'s 911 center. A center that residents and visitors rely on to get help in an emergency.
Heather McGaffin, director of the District's Office of Unified Communications, spoke to reporters for the first time Monday about the issues that have plagued the 911 call center. The News4 I-Team requested comment and interviews with McGaffin for months.
"Being in the nation's capital and being the call center for the nation's capital, a lot of folks are looking at us. So, I think what happens is when we have these issues, these mistakes, when we're doing things, there's a lot of hyper-focus about what we're doing," McGaffin said during Monday's news conference.
So far this year, the computer system that is used to dispatch police, firefighters and paramedics had at least seven outages. Government officials said Monday there have been a total of 18 disruptions to the system since December 2023.
An outage on Aug. 2 is being investigated by police as they seek to understand whether it was human error or a nefarious act that brought down the system. That outage coincided with the death of a 5-month-old child.
McGaffin said Monday the issue was a "system mistake."
"No one person did anything in this. If one person had done something in this, I would be holding them accountable. They wouldn't be answering 911 calls or dispatching," McGaffin said.
The child's parents called 911 for help, but said they were unable to get through by phone at first. Officials said phone calls were not affected by the outage.
Here are updates as they came in to our newsroom on Monday:
