Washington, D.C.’s 911 dispatch system is so broken that employees are reportedly being bribed with bonuses just for showing up to work.
Dispatchers reportedly received an email on Tuesday from Heather McGaffin, the director of the city’s Office of Unified Communications (OUC), offering them $800 a month in addition to their salaries if they arrived to work for their scheduled shifts.
“According to OUC, in May, 50 of 66 shifts were properly staffed,” WJLA reported. “In June, only about half — 34 shifts were adequately covered. And by July, records show that only eight of 66 shifts were enough staff to meet emergency needs.”
(Video Credit: NBC4 Washington)
“Good morning 911 Team,” McGaffin’s letter began.
“Starting immediately all 911 employees who show up for all of their scheduled shifts will receive an $800 incentive for the month,” she wrote. “Staffing is crucial to the success of our agency. Unscheduled callouts of all kinds are up and causing a hardship for fellow employees who are continuously getting stuck, coming in early, and being asked to come in on days off.”
“The pilot is simple- show up for each shift you’re assigned and receive $800 additional for the month. We start today for August,” the letter stated.
The plan to pay the bonuses amid a crumbling emergency system has outraged many in D.C.
Council Member Charles Allen called out the crisis levels at the OUC.
“Not a week goes by that I don’t have a constituent reach out who couldn’t get through, had to wait a long time for first responders to be dispatched in an emergency, or had the wrong – or no – response arrive on scene,” he said.
“The executive won’t even admit there’s a major problem – but if it’s true they’re paying people $800 just to come to work, it’s a clear admission that we have an agency badly in need of major changes,” he added. “DC residents are shaken and don’t trust that there’s leadership and a clear directive to turn the agency around. That’s a huge problem.”
The 911 computer system went offline six times this year alone as internal computer hardware failed. One recent outage lasted for 20 minutes. During a two-hour outage just weeks ago, a family could not get through to get help for their 5-month-old baby who was in medical distress. That infant later died.
D.C. public safety watchdog and former journalist David Statter called out the city council and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser for ignoring problems.
“The problems at 911 really boil down to training and most importantly, leadership,” Statter told WJLA. “The leadership has not addressed these problems. They keep seeming to spend more time on covering things up rather than trying to fix them.”
(Video Credit: ABC7)
“I would say right now things are worse than they’ve ever been,” said Statter. “And I’ve been covering 911 in the District for about 40 years and I’ve never seen it this bad.”
An OUC spokesperson said in a statement, “We appreciate how hard our team at OUC are working and will continue to acknowledge and reward those efforts. Staffing is crucial to the success of the agency, and we will continue to explore ways to enhance agency performance while being good stewards of District resources.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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