(1) Do you know what's missing in @SafeDC's statement on Cleo Subido telling DC 911's staff to show up for work, ready to work & follow orders? Let me help you. Zero support for Subido or her efforts to right the ship. Read on. You'll see this likely wasn't an oversight. (more)
(2) I gave @SafeDC a second opportunity to voice support for Cleo Subido's efforts to deal with @OUC_DC's systemic problems. I asked for info on 7 items. The Subido support inquiry was my first question & the only one not answered. It sure makes you wonder. (more)
(3) Compare this to @MayorBowser's unwavering support for @OUC_DC's previous director whenever reporters dared to ask about the many DC 911 problems. Remember, Karima Holmes was in charge for 5 years, allowing the problems to fester that Cleo Subido is now trying to fix. (more)
(4) Does @SafeDC's lack of public support tell @OUC_DC staff that maybe they don't have to pay attention to Subido's blunt email describing toxic workplace issues where some workers do as they please? Remember -- Subido's name has not been forwarded to the @councilofdc. (more)
(5) Responding to my email, @SafeDC did elaborate a bit more on questions I had about the other things missing in the original statement. What follows are excerpts from Subido's email followed by Deputy Mayor Chris Geldart's responses to my questions. (more)
(6) Subido wrote leave policies left only half the staff available at any one time & @OUC_DC isn't meeting minimum staffing. @SafeDC elaborated, but still won't say how often DC 911 didn't meet minimum staffing -- something that has direct impact on answering 911 calls. (more)
(7) @SafeDC's original statement barely touched Subido's strong message to @OUC_DC staff who aren't following orders, putting in a full day’s work & reporting mistakes. Geldart elaborated on these issues in the follow-up. (more)
(8) With Covid-19 cases rising again, one of the biggest eye openers in Subido's email was that less than 35% of @OUC_DC staff is vaccinated. The lowest of any DC agency. @SafeDC reacted to that in his response. (more)
(9) For once, a 911 professional is in charge who not only knows what needs to be done & how to do it, but is candid & transparent with staff & the public. Yet, in 2 opportunities & when specifically asked @SafeDC doesn't voice support. Puzzling. (more)
(10) What's more puzzling is that there is strong support for Subido in the command staff of @OUC_DC's biggest clients--@dcfireems & @DCPoliceDept. Why? Because for the first time they have a real partner who's candid & looking for solutions to longstanding problems. (more)
(11) In the meantime, there's still plenty of chaos & confusion coming from DC 911. Monday night they dispatched @dcfireems to a fire at a building where they already had units on the scene handling alarm bells. A regular @OUC_DC occurrence. (more)
(12) On Sunday night, @OUC_DC sent three different ambulances to the very same call. It was near Florida & R NW. An intersection that there are two of in DC (yes, both are in Northwest). @OUC_DC keeps making that mistake -- over & over again. (more)
(13) @OUC_DC dispatchers are still abandoning emergency radio channels, failing to answer them for minutes at a time. I've documented this 17 times on @dcfireems radio channels alone & I'm sure those aren't all of them. (more)
(14) None of these 911 failures will go away without first handling the basic workplace issues outlined in Cleo Subido's email. It all has to start with people showing up for work, willing to work & following the rules. (more)
(15) I'll start to wind down this thread with @MayorBowser's comments on the departure of Karima Holmes after 5 years of helping facilitate this 911 crisis. Compare what you hear from Mayor Bowser to Subido's letter & ask why is no one speaking up this way for Cleo Subido. (more)
(1) The @dcdistrictdogs flood shows @MayorBowser's administration doesn't care who gets hurt in its quest to keep DC911/@OUC_DC's mistakes buried. The fact they still refuse to admit what happened is part of a years-long shameful pattern. Here's a history lesson. (more)
(2) 4 years ago this month @MayorBowser shielded @OUC_DC from a multi-agency investigation of the tragic 708 Kennedy St NW fire that killed Yafet Solomon & Fitsum Kebede. As with @dcdistrictdogs, OUC gave non-sensical answers to key questions. (more) thedcline.org/2020/08/18/dav…
(3) 4 years before Kennedy St., @MayorBowser showed she didn't want outsiders probing DC911/@OUC_DC. Her administration refused a @NTSB recommendation for an OUC operations audit after the deadly L'Enfant Plaza Metro fire. It was never done. The fire killed Carol Glover. (more)
(1) NEW: In a press conference where she made things worse & not better, DC911 boss Heather McGaffin's unusual excuses for a major 911 failure aren't passing the smell test. None more so than blaming a dispatcher who "misspoke" for the 15 min. delay sending emergency help. (more)
(2) LISTEN: McGaffin kept saying a dispatcher simply "misspoke" when he dispatched the initial call to @dcdistrictdogs as a "water leak". What she didn't explain is how a different dispatcher on a different channel also misspoke 3 minutes later, using the very same words. (more)
(3) A likely explanation for this coincidence of the pair misspeaking in the exact same way is that it wasn't a coincidence at all. They likely both read from the dispatch computer where this call was misclassified as a non-emergency "water leak" or "public assist". (more)
(1) BREAKING: DC911/@OUC_DC's Heather McGaffin finally admits DC911 messed up in the @dcdistrictdogs response. As we told you last Monday the 15-minute delay would come down to what the first 911 callers said. They said plenty about how bad the situation was. It was an EMERGENCY! The walls were coming down during the flooding with people & dogs inside. But DC911 dispatched this as a non-emergency water leak. (more details to come)
The release of this information and the 911 transcripts would not have come without the outrage of the people impacted, some tenacious reporters & @ZacharyforWard5.
(2) At the press conference McGaffin called this an "unprecedented incident" that OUC "hadn't fully prepared ourselves for or our staff for". That's an astounding statement. A 911 center that isn't prepared to understand flooding in a building where a wall has come in & people & dogs are inside is an EMERGENCY is not prepared to do the job on a daily basis. This is not unprecedented. (more) @ANCCostello @RealTimeNews10 @RamirezReports @SegravesNBC4 @tomsherwood
(3) In the press conference, which I am just replaying, McGaffin talks about DC911/@OUC_DC needing to do a better job of relaying the dispatch notes/updates. That's something STATter911 has pointed out for years. Last year I had a top official at OUC tell me reading those is the job of @dcfireems. (more)
(1) This evening, yet another example of DC911/@OUC_DC making the same mistakes over & over because of a lack of leadership, supervision, situational awareness & training. As usual, @dcfireems saved the day. Listen in the next tweet. (more) @CMBrookePinto @SafeDC @MayorBowser
(2) LISTEN: At 6:41 pm DC911/@OUC_DC sent Engine 6 & Truck 4 to 1730 7th St for alarm bells. At 6:45 pm DC911 sent a full structure fire assignment of 13 units to the same address, totally forgetting they sent E6 & T4 just 4 minutes earlier. (more)
(3) Thankfully Engine 6 caught the mistake & alerted DC911/@OUC_DC. This type of error--it happens frequently--has caused confusion, missed assignments on the fireground & wastes resources. You have to wonder how this gets by the supervisors & dispatchers so often. (more)
(1) Within 4 minutes today DC911/@OUC_DC dispatched 3 separate assignments sending @dcfireems to these locations for a crash:
• 2:50 a.m. Washington Blvd. & Memorial Ave. SW
• 2:52 a.m. Lincoln Memorial Circle NW
• 2:53 a.m. Rock Creek Pkwy & Ohio Dr. NW
(more)
(2) It should be obvious to anyone at DC911/@OUC_DC all 3 are likely the same crash. I get that the locations need to be checked but why didn't dispatchers let the responding units know what was going on? Why, as usual, did they leave @dcfireems in the dark? (more)
(3) The @dcfireems units couldn't even hear for themselves that they were all operating in the same area, likely on the same call, because one of the units was assigned a different radio channel. (more)
(1) Right on cue--as if we needed more evidence--DC911/@OUC_DC helped to further justify @councilofdc's OUC transparency act. When @CaseyNolen did a story about the emergency legislation OUC refused to comment. Of course they did. But there's more. (more) @CMBrookePinto @SafeDC
(2) A key point of the emergency act that passed yesterday is real data on daily staffing. The staffing stats are something STATter911 has pushed for over many months. Why? Because we now learn even @ChmnMendelson couldn't get a live person on the phone when calling 911. (more)
(3) Watch: @ChmnMendelson tells a story so many others told us over the last year -- no call-taker picked up when he called 911. It seems to be the rule rather than the exception that 911 in the nation's capital doesn't answer right away. (more)