OUC and Watchdog Criticize D.C. 911 Transparency Bill
District of Columbia emergency officials opposed a D.C. Council bill aimed at increasing transparency at the Office of Unified Communications 911 center. During a livestreamed Judiciary and Public Safety Committee hearing Wednesday, OUC Director Heather McGaffin raised privacy concerns about the bill, noting calls from people in sensitive situations might be made public. However, Dave Statter, a former journalist who regularly blogs about OUC errors, said privacy concerns are overblown and more transparency could help. But he said the bill doesn't go far enough.
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The committee held its second OUC hearing in four weeks amid concerns about the District 911 center's errors, including getting addresses wrong and delaying answering calls and sending help. As part of her committee’s ramped-up oversight, Chair Brooke Pinto (D) is also making unannounced OUC visits, checking on staffing levels and other issues (see 2409300047).
The panel at Wednesday’s hearing weighed two Pinto bills that center on concerns about transparency and staffing levels. Bill 25-953 would require the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) to create reports after possible failures of emergency response. The reports and relevant documents would be made public. Another bill (25-954) would require free, on-site childcare for all D.C. first responders, including 911 call takers and dispatchers.
The transparency bill's goal isn’t merely to highlight OUC mistakes but to drive changes, said Pinto. Supporting the bill, Councilmember Matthew Fruman (D) told OUC’s director it’s “very deeply in your interest for there to be more transparency.”
While OUC said it wants as much transparency as possible, the agency also believes it should protect 911 callers during and after emergencies, said McGaffin: "There have been several instances recently where requests for 911 calls could have been catastrophic or traumatic if released to someone other than the caller." However, Pinto’s bill would release information “with no regard to privacy” and doesn’t consider redaction, said the OUC director: That could let someone play a sensitive 911 recording on TV or post it online, where it might remain indefinitely.
Forcing HSEMA to write after-action reports about the 911 center doesn’t align with the emergency management agency’s mission, said Director Clint Osborn, opposing the measure. "The bill creates overly burdensome oversight, does not align with industry best practice and is overly vague and broad."
Statter opposed the bill because he doesn’t think it will reveal enough or get information out quickly. Instead, it would merely create a 45-day wait to get another possibly misleading report from a D.C. government that has been consistently opaque, he said. "If passed, all this bill will do is make the council complicit in the next OUC coverup.” Statter said the council should require that OUC release 911 call recordings and computer-aided dispatch (CAD) reports whenever a D.C. Freedom of Information Act is filed. OUC doesn’t frequently grant such requests, though in 2020 it released 911 call recordings to Communications Daily after a FOIA request (see 2011130053).
Pinto asked Statter how to improve her transparency bill while "recognizing the privacy concerns that some callers might have about not wanting their most urgent personal moments to be released in the public in all instances." The blogger suggested redacting the callers' private or identifying information. Later in the hearing, however, McGaffin said it's sometimes tricky to redact every piece of dialogue that might reveal the identity of someone on a call.
Staffing must be “the No. 1 priority for this agency,” Pinto said earlier in the hearing. Recruiting and retaining staff remains a key challenge that affects OUC accuracy and speed of responding to emergencies, she said. Understaffing increases demands on employees who already work in a high-stress environment, she added. In July, only 13% of OUC shifts met minimal staffing targets; that increased to 57% in August but fell to 51% in September, said Pinto. Also, call takers should get higher salaries and more benefits, she said.