DC 911 Office Nominee Pledges to Restore Lost Trust

The District of Columbia’s 911 office will improve processes and be “transparent and accountable to the public,” said its possible next director, Heather McGaffin, at a D.C. Council committee roundtable livestreamed Wednesday. Judiciary and Public Safety Committee Chair Brooke Pinto (D) pressed McGaffin on how she will make the Office of Unified Communications (OUC) more open about errors responding to emergency calls. The committee mulled confirming McGaffin (PR25-0115) to lead OUC and Lindsey Appiah to be deputy mayor-public safety and justice.

Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) on Feb. 17 nominated McGaffin, who was the office’s chief of special operations and investigations from October 2020 to February 2022 and is now deputy director. From September 2015 to October 2020, she worked with Mission Critical Partners to help states with next-generation 911 transitions and other projects. From April 2006 to September 2015, McGaffin handled call taking, dispatching and supervising at the emergency communications center in Calvert County, Maryland.

OUC’s former interim director, Cleo Subido, filed a whistleblower complaint against Bowser, OUC and the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department earlier this month (see 2303080048). Subido alleged retaliation by D.C. for citing problems at OUC. Bowser withdrew previous nominee Karima Holmes in December after D.C. Council members signaled they would reject the former OUC director’s confirmation (see 2212060042). OUC has been criticized about recent audits finding problems at the 911 office and specific incidents where incorrect addresses and miscommunication led to dispatching delays (see 2212060042, 2211100036 and 2209090049).

McGaffin would become director at a “critical time” for the 911 office, said Pinto. "OUC is in need of strong leadership and a culture shift to restore the public's trust through increased transparency and accountability and integrity,” said Pinto. “I continue to be deeply concerned about incidents in which first responders have been dispatched to incorrect addresses, and dispatches that have been significantly delayed or never relayed to first responders at all. There is no room for error in this work because residents' lives are on the line.”

McGaffin seeks to "restore any lost trust,” the nominee said in opening testimony. “I know there's work to be done.” She plans to focus on aligning policies and procedures with national standards, developing recruitment and retention best practices, analyzing 911 and 311 workflows "to ensure positive interactions" and reducing errors by reviewing and updating training and technology. Also, McGaffin seeks to provide more health services to employees "to ensure their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing” and strengthen the agency’s relationship "with the community by being responsive to their needs and keeping open the lines of communication.” By reviewing the D.C. audit and national standards, “I intend to look closely at how we operate daily and continue to implement solutions to address our misses.”

The next OUC director should be more transparent about 911 problems, testified D.C. Auditor Kathleen Patterson. "It remains a fact … that too many calls are not handled well." Patterson’s office plans to release another update in weeks on OUC progress responding to an October 2021 audit, she said. The auditor confirmed seven of 31 recommendations addressed, though McGaffin reported in response to the latest draft update that 23 were addressed, said Patterson. More data and evidence is needed before confirming that many have been completed, she said. "Whether they are fully implemented must be substantiated with actual performance data,” which the committee should regularly require from OUC.

Transparency Promises

McGaffin agreed to several commitments sought by Pinto, including quarterly reports to the committee on call taker and dispatcher errors, including why they happened and any corrective actions taken; average and maximum times to answer calls; and number of shifts operated under minimum staffing levels. McGaffin also pledged to track data on 911 misuse and provide clearer documentation in after-action reports on investigative and remedial efforts taken by the agency. McGaffin voluntarily committed to having an industry third party review incidents so OUC isn’t only “self-investigating.”

McGaffin wouldn't commit, without first discussing with OUC’s general counsel, to giving the public redacted transcripts for every call where there was an incident report. Disclosing those calls could create privacy and safety concerns for the callers, she said.

Pinto asked McGaffin about Subido’s whistleblower lawsuit. The OUC nominee said she couldn’t discuss pending litigation but could respond generally to certain issues raised. Pinto asked about the allegation that OUC has a culture of not reporting mistakes and threatening repercussions if errors are disclosed. That’s not McGaffin’s experience, she said. OUC has a feedback forum and monitors social media, and McGaffin has sometimes personally reached out to complaining residents and their council members, she said.

Pinto asked if call takers still aren't using mapping technology to help locate callers, as reported by the D.C. auditor. McGaffin said OUC is trying to reduce hesitation to use the maps. When the technology was rolled out, trainers may not have known much about the technology and failed to provide appropriate education, she said. OUC is seeking more training from RapidSOS and other private partners, she added.

OUC completed an auditor recommendation to have four supervisors on the floor during every shift, a change since auditors visited in September, said McGaffin. It’s not feasible to meet a recommendation to have 40 hours of one-one-one training for about 220 employees, but OUC is providing training that it views as equivalent, she said.

“Morale is really on the uptick around here,” McGaffin said. Workers will be less afraid to admit errors when they know they won't “get fired for the first time that they chose the wrong quadrant of the city,” but rather will get more help “so they can do better the next time.”

The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety seeks to improve recruiting and retention at OUC and other agencies, said Appiah, the acting deputy mayor, earlier in the hearing. She wants to build OUC’s internal pipeline for call takers and invest more in mental health and wellness for current employees.