The center, officially known as DC’s Office of Unified Communications, handles 1.8 million calls a year. An I-Team examination of months of OUC payroll and staffing data found that so far in all of 2024, there have only been two shifts in which the dispatch center has not relied on overtime, and that nearly 40% of all hours worked at OUC are overtime.
This means that a significant number of the people who answer emergency calls in DC 911 are working an extra day or more than 12 hours at a time at the time of your call.
Both experts and the center’s director told the I-Team that overtime could lead to errors.
OUC employees work 12-hour shifts plus overtime
OUC Director Heather McGaffin has repeatedly said staffing is her top priority. Starting Aug. 13, she is offering her employees $800 a month as a bonus just for showing up to work on time. One government official called the launch of the program “extremely successful.”
OUC says it has 178 911 call takers and dispatchers. A spokesperson told the DC I-Team that the call takers and dispatchers must work 12-hour shifts – sometimes as many as five in a single week.
“You have to hurry to get the call out because you never know what can happen,” call taker Britne Saunders told the I-Team. “It gets pretty stressful.”
Washington, DC, 911 dispatchers admit the constant rush and long hours are taking their toll. It’s a nationwide problem. In a recent industry survey by an emergency communications professional group, nearly 20% of 911 operators who quit cited overtime as the primary reason.
“You’re on the phone all the time,” Saunders said during an interview at the emergency dispatch center. “There’s no time off unless you get your break.”
Saunders has only been in office for a few months.
Some DC 911 employees earn more than the director due to overtime
Examining OUC payroll records over a 12-month period, the I-Team found nearly 70 OUC employees who earned more than $20,000 in overtime, on top of starting salaries of at least $50,000 per year.
According to records, four dispatchers were each paid overtime worth more than $100,000.
Three of the four worked more than 1,750 hours of overtime alone, which is essentially the equivalent of a second full-time job. These four dispatchers each received annual salaries between $197,000 and $235,000, records show.
“There is no other option (other than overtime) if they can’t hire other people,” Christian Gulotta of New York City told the I-Team.
Gulotta is a former NYPD officer who helped lead New York City’s 911 operations center and now advises on 911 personnel issues nationwide.
“If a 911 operator is working too many hours, they’re obviously tired,” Gulotta said. “They can make a mistake writing an address. They can make a mistake by coding something incorrectly.”
“No, we are in the southeast”
The I-Team found Huria Allie outside her Northeast DC apartment. Her kitchen caught fire in the middle of the night in May. She says her daughter inhaled smoke and she called 911. But she couldn’t find the ambulance she was expecting. Calls to dispatch show emergency responders were headed to the wrong location.
“I gave him 1100 Eastern Avenue,” Allie told the I-Team. “They say they sent us all the way to 1100 East Capitol.”
That’s 25 minutes away. Another team arrived and Huria’s family escaped unharmed, but their home had to be rebuilt.
Days earlier, the same problem occurred at the corner of 17th and R Streets SE. A woman called 911 because there was a fire across the hall.
“(The operator) says northwest. I say, ‘No, we’re in the southeast,'” said the woman, who wanted to be identified only as Nicole.
She said that four homes were damaged and she wondered if there was no mistake on 9/11, “that people lost their homes.”
The staffing crisis at Washington’s 911 call center has become so critical that the agency is offering employees an $800-a-month bonus for simply showing up for all scheduled shifts, News4’s Mark Segraves reports.
Hundreds of people hang up while waiting for DC 911 to take off
Others said they couldn’t find anyone to answer the phone at all.
David MacMillan said he called this spring after spotting a 2-year-old child walking into his backyard wearing only a diaper.
“I was on hold on 911 for, I think, four or five minutes,” MacMillan told the I-Team.
He said he waited long enough to get through and police helped him reunite the toddler with his parents.
His complaint was brought to the I-Team more than once.
OUC statistics reviewed by the I-Team show that hundreds of people hang up on DC 911 every day. Since July 1, OUC data shows that an average of 202 people hang up on 911 after waiting on hold for at least 15 seconds.
“I called but got no answer,” ANC Commissioner Salim Adofo told the I-Team.
He said he called 911 after witnessing a case of domestic violence.
“I called back and got no answer. Finally, when I called them a third time, I got an answer,” he said.
On average, 911 calls in DC are still answered faster than the 15-second mark, but the average time is higher this year than last year.
Records show that the staffing situation at DC 911 has worsened
In DC, the I-Team examined every shift every day since January and found that the staffing situation had worsened over the course of the year.
In July, 88% of all shifts did not meet minimum staffing levels, more than in any other month this year. As of the evening of July 26, OUC’s own records show that they had only 12% of the answering machines required to meet minimum staffing levels.
Gulotta warned: “If you call an emergency call center there and everyone is busy, there is no forwarding to another center.”
That brings us back to Salim Adofo, who said he called 911 and couldn’t get through. It was “very frustrating,” Adofo told the I-Team. The ANC commissioner said he’s so fed up that he’s now trying to be part of the solution.
News4 recently caught up with him at a job interview where hundreds of Washington, D.C., residents applied for dozens of telephone answering jobs.
“This is a pressing need in the city right now,” Adofo said. “It’s an opportunity to make sure we can get the resources to the residents in need.”
Although there are hundreds of applicants on Prospect Days, it can take five to six months to get hired and trained at OUC. Spokesmen and staff say only a few dozen people actually make it to the hall to take calls. Two months after his Prospect Day, an OUC spokesperson says his application is still being reviewed.
The News4 I-Team confirmed that a Washington, D.C., family called 911 on Friday after their five-month-old child wouldn’t wake up from a nap, but they told police they were unable to reach 911. Investigative reporter Ted Oberg has the latest on Friday’s power outage.
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In the last 12 months, OUC has hired 23 call-taking and dispatch agents. There are fewer applications and more applicants, and they are still looking to hire 40 new employees.
The I-Team wants to know what your experience was with DC 911. If you called, please tell us about it. Good or bad, we want to know. Go here to tell us what happened.
