D.C. Auditor Investigates Incorrect Responses by 911 Dispatchers

WASHINGTON -- The District of Columbia’s 911 call system is being investigated by the D.C. Auditor after complaints that dispatchers commonly gave emergency responders incorrect addresses or they were slow to respond.

A preliminary audit indicates the D.C. Office of Unified Communications, which oversees the 911 service, under-reported to the D.C. Council the number of times emergency responders are sent to wrong addresses.

The allegations led to the departure in January of Karima Holmes as head of the Office of Unified Communications. The call center handles more than a million calls per year.

The first recommendations for an audit came from the National Transportation Safety Board after its investigation of a Jan. 12, 2015 electrical fire that produced heavy smoke at the L’Enfant Plaza Metro Station.

The NTSB blamed the electrical malfunction on poor maintenance by Metro but blamed the 911 center for a slow emergency response. One passenger was killed and 84 hospitalized by smoke inhalation.

The NTSB said the Office of Unified Communications should audit its “average length of time that call takers use to process an emergency call and dispatch emergency service, and compare those results ” with other urban 911 call centers.

Other requests for an audit came from a vote of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 4B after a fatal 2019 house fire in Northwest D.C. The commissioners blamed an inappropriate emergency response for contributing to a resident’s death. 

A final report on the audit is expected in May.

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