Criminal investigations are currently underway into the computer failure at the capital’s emergency call center.
Police are currently trying to determine whether the system was brought down intentionally or due to human error, News4 reported.
So far in 2024, there have been at least seven unplanned outages of the computer system that DC’s Office of Unified Communications (OUC) uses to dispatch fire trucks and ambulances.
During one of these power outages, a small child died earlier this month, which once again brought the center into the spotlight of criticism.
When the five-month-old baby’s family couldn’t reach 9-1-1, someone ran out of the apartment and found a federal police officer who began CPR.
Firefighters continued the rescue attempt but wanted paramedics and an ambulance with advanced life support to take the baby to the hospital. The dispatch center repeatedly tried to send a paramedic, but they were unavailable and were handling another call, the station reported.
There was frustration in the firefighter’s voice.
“We have a young child in cardiac arrest,” one said. “I’ve alerted everyone here on this channel several times… Do we have an ALS unit or paramedic that might be available?”
When the system goes down, response teams must track hundreds of calls using paper and pencil, public safety officials told reporters.
Insiders explain that this means callers and dispatchers sometimes carry pieces of paper from one location to another within the control center, using radio communications to ensure fire crews know where to go.
DC often points out that its 911 call center is the fourth largest in the country, receiving an average of one emergency call every three seconds last year.
With many employees not showing up for work, the city announced this week that dispatchers who report for every shift assigned to them each month will receive an $800 bonus.
The investigation into the system failures is the only one currently underway.
Internal Affairs officials are trying to determine how the media obtained the information.
