Officially known as D.C.’s Office of Unified Communications, the center handles 1.8 million calls a year. An I-Team investigation into months of OUC payroll and staffing data revealed there have been just two shifts so far in all of 2024 during which the dispatch center hasn’t relied on overtime, and nearly 40% of all hours worked at OUC are overtime hours.
That means a substantial number of people taking D.C. 911 calls are working an extra day or longer than 12 hours in a row when you call.
Experts and the center’s director both told the I-Team that long hours can lead to mistakes.
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OUC workers pull 12-hour shifts plus overtime
OUC Director Heather McGaffin repeatedly has said staffing is her No. 1 concern, so much so that starting Aug. 13, she’s offering employees $800 of your money as a monthly bonus to workers just for showing up for work every time they’re scheduled. A government official described the start of the program as “wildly successful.”
OUC says it has 178 call takers and dispatchers. A spokesperson told the I-Team D.C. emergency call takers and dispatchers are scheduled to work 12-hour shifts – sometimes five in a single week.
“You got to hurry to get that call out because, you know, you don't know what can happen,” call taker Britne Saunders told the I-Team. “It gets pretty stressful.”
Dispatchers at D.C.’s 911 center admit the constant pace and overtime take a toll. It’s a nationwide issue. In a recent industry survey by an emergency communication trade group, almost 20% of 911 workers who quit cited overtime as the main reason.
“You're on the phone all the time,” Saunders said during an interview inside the 911 center. “There's no downtime unless you get your break.”
Saunders is just a few months into the job.
Some DC 911 workers make more than the director because of overtime
Examining 12 months of OUC payroll records, the I-Team found nearly 70 OUC employees who earned more than $20,000 in overtime. That’s on top of at least $50,000 per year as a starting salary.
Four dispatchers were paid more than $100,000 each in overtime, records show.
Three of the four worked more than 1,750 hours of overtime alone, practically making up a second full-time job. Those four dispatchers each received total annual pay between $197,000 and $235,000, records show.
“There’s no other option [aside from 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 run New York’s 911 center and now consults on 911 staffing issues nationwide.
“If a 911 operator is working too many hours, of course they're going to be tired,” Gulotta said. “They can make a mistake writing an address. They can make a mistake by miscoding something.”
‘No, we’re in Southeast’
The I-Team found Huria Allie outside her Northeast D.C. apartment. In May, her kitchen caught fire in the middle of the night. She says her daughter inhaled smoke and she called 911. But she couldn’t find the ambulance she expected. Dispatch calls reveal first responders were going to the wrong place.
“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 crew arrived, and Huria’s family ended up OK, but their apartment needed to be rebuilt.
Days earlier, at 17th and R streets SE, it was the same problem. A woman called 911 because of a fire across the hall.
“[The dispatcher] says Northwest. I'm like, ‘No, we're in Southeast,’” said the woman, who only wanted to be identified as Nicole.
She said four apartments were damaged and that she wonders if there had been no 911 mistake, “it could’ve prevented people from being displaced.”
Hundreds of people hang up while waiting for DC 911 to pick up
Others said they couldn’t get anyone to pick up at all.
David MacMillan said he called this spring after he discovered a 2-year-old child who had wandered into his backyard wearing nothing but a diaper.
“I ended up being on hold with 911 for, I think, 4 to 5 minutes,” MacMillan told the I-Team.
He said he waited long enough to get through, and police helped him reunite the toddler and his parents.
His complaint is one the I-Team heard more than once.
OUC statistics reviewed by the I-Team show hundreds of people hang up while waiting on D.C. 911 to pick up every day. Since July 1, OUC data shows an average of 202 people hang up on 911 after waiting at least 15 seconds on hold.
“I called, didn't get an answer,” ANC Commissioner Salim Adofo told the I-Team.
He said he called 911 for help after he witnessed an instance of domestic violence.
“I called back and didn't get an answer. Finally, on a third time, I called them. I got an answer,” he said.
On average, 911 calls in D.C. are still answered faster than its 15-second benchmark, but the average time is higher this year than last.
Records show DC 911 staffing has gotten worse
In D.C., the I-Team examined every shift on every day since January and found staffing got worse as the year went on.
In July, 88% of all shifts didn’t meet minimum staffing levels, which is more than any month this year. On the night of Friday, July 26, OUC’s own documents show they had just 12% of the call takers they needed for minimum staffing.
Gulotta warned, “When you call a 911 center there and everybody's busy, there's no phone spill to another center.”
Which brings us back to Salim Adofo, who said he called D.C. 911 and couldn’t get through. It was “very frustrating” Adofo told the I-Team. The ANC commissioner said he got so fed up that he’s now trying to be part of the solution.
News4 met him at a recent prospect day, where hundreds of D.C. residents applied for dozens of call-taking jobs.
“This is a critical need in the city right now,” Adofo said. “It's an opportunity to make sure that we can get the resources to the residents that are in need.”
Despite having hundreds of applicants on prospect days, it can take five to six months to get fully hired and trained at OUC. Spokespeople and employees say only a few dozen people actually make it to the floor to take calls. Two months after his prospect day, an OUC spokesperson says they are still reviewing his application.
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In the past 12 months, OUC has added 23 call takers and dispatchers. There are fewer job applications and more applicants, and they still are looking to hire 40 people.
The I-Team wants to know your experience with D.C. 911. If you’ve called, please tell us about it; good or bad, we want to know. Go here to tell us what happened.
