WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — D.C.’s troubled 911 system will soon see greater oversight.

Councilmember Brooke Pinto is introducing legislation she said will improve performance, transparency and accountability.

DC 911’s call center to offer $800 bonus to employees who show up for work

Pinto took a tour of the 911 center on Monday where she said staffing levels seemed decent, but the data shows that’s not been the case overall this summer. It’s one of the main reasons she’s cracking down on the Office of Unified Communications.

“This July alone, we only had 13% of our shifts that met the minimum staffing ratios that they were supposed to,” Pinto said.

It’s an ongoing problem at D.C.’s 911 center that worsened this summer, which Pinto plans to address.

“I’m introducing legislation to require public release of after-action reports following incidents that resulted in errors or a departure from regular protocol,” Pinto said.

Changes, upgrades coming to DC’s 911 system after major outages

Her bill would also require the release of the computer-aided dispatch reports and transcripts and recording of the 911 calls.

Public safety watchdog, Dave Statter, is cautiously optimistic.

“In a sense, they are good things to have more transparency. But there are things that could have been done long ago and in the past, OUC as not followed the law. The law that Ms. Pinto created,” Statter said.

Statter is referring to Pinto’s Secure DC Bill that was passed six months ago.

It calls for key data to be published to a dashboard, including how long it takes for calls to be answered and how long it takes to get crews dispatched. That dashboard is still missing some of that data.

“We are very disappointed that that information is not public yet,” Pinto said. “We’ve followed up throughout the spring and the summer with, oh, you see, they told us that it will be live by the beginning of the fiscal year, which is this October 1.”

Pinto will be making unannounced visits to the call center every two weeks and holding monthly oversight hearings on the OUC.

“She really has to move the ball forward with these hearings to give new ideas and maybe a new structure to D.C. 911,” Statter said. “I’m happy to see the oversight hearings. I’d like to see a good hearing on the bill that Councilmember Nadeau introduced about removing fire and EMS from OUC and putting it back to the fire department. She has not allowed a hearing on that bill.”

Former employee of DC’s 911 Call Center criticizes agency

Statter said he’s concerned the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency is still in charge of authoring after-action reports.

“Two reports written over incidents in 2023 by HSEMA were cover-ups. They covered up the key material that said what happened in those incidents,” Statter said. That’s the District Dogs flood and when a car went into the Anacostia River killing three people and fire police, and EMS were sent to the wrong location.”

Pinto said the hearings will focus on recent failures from this summer, performance and transparency metrics and technology and multi-agency coordination.

“If you are a resident or visitor to Washington, D.C., you have a right to have a 911 call center that is 100% fast and accurate and transparent, and we are going to be working every single day with this agency to make sure that we get there,” Pinto said.

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WASHINGTON – The D.C. Council will take a closer look at the District’s 911 call center this fall, FOX 5 has learned.

The move follows several high-profile incidents in recent years involving delayed responses, incorrect addresses, and misclassification of urgent calls.

Brooke Pinto is the Council’s Chair for Public Safety.  She announced Monday that she’d have oversight hearings in the fall, and introduce legislation aimed at creating more transparency for the Office of Unified Communications, or OUC.

The hearings will center on “operational failures,” transparency, performance, technology, and coordination within the D.C. Government. 

There will also be unannounced visits to the call center.

“I think one of the most important things to keep in mind is how important oversight is to this. Solutions aren’t always built into a new law or a new idea. It also requires daily follow-up and oversight and making sure the agency is holding up their end of the bargain and following the law as implemented and intended,” Pinto said.

As for the proposed legislation, Pinto wants required releases of after-action reports when there’s reason to believe an error leads to serious injury or death. 

It will also call for the release of relevant records from dispatch, along with transcripts and even 911 calls.

Over the last few years, FOX 5 has profiled stories of families who feel a better emergency response might have saved their loved ones.

David Griffin had a mental health crisis and jumped into the Washington Channel in March 2022 and drowned.

Multiple 911 calls were made before he jumped, but the call was characterized as an overdose instead of a Priority 1 emergency, according to a lawsuit filed by the family against the District.

Aujah Griffin is his daughter who’s been advocating for changes and improvements to OUC since her father died but has been frustrated by the lack of progress.

She said she hopes this time is different.

“These types of things, when you see other people advocate, especially for the same things that you’re advocating for, it makes a world of difference. But, um, I’ll believe it when I see it, that’s sort of where I am at this point. I haven’t seen anything that sticks. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high,” Griffin said.

Regarding Griffin’s death, an OUC spokesperson told WTOP, which prompted a review, and there was room to improve the response.

The lawsuit is still pending.

For its part, in response to another death, OUC said last month they’re continuing to work on improving technology, bringing in more staffing, and improving the agency which they said is staffed with good, hardworking people.

In a statement to FOX 5 Monday, OUC said it’s committed to transparency and improving emergency communications in the District.

“OUC is committed to transparency about how we critically evaluate performance to understand root causes, integrate best practices, and quickly implement changes in order to continuously improve 911 service for the District of Columbia,” the statement reads.

In his most recent tour de food, popular TikTok food reviewer Keith Lee made his way to the Washington D.C. area much to the excitement of his countless online fans, including myself. The fact that Lee had chosen the DMV (short for D.C., Maryland and Virginia) — an often overlooked area within the food and restaurant spaces — as his next destination spot was major. Upon his request for local mom-and-pops that serve up “great food and service, but could use the marketing,” Lee received over 20,000 recommendations from his 16.5 million followers. 

Lee, a Las Vegas-based mixed martial arts fighter and beloved online food critic, is best known for spreading positivity through his honest, yet well-mannered reviews. Through his efforts, Lee helps promote the “Keith Lee Effect,” in which he provides generous tips and donations to struggling, mainly minority- and family-owned local restaurants in an effort to boost their sales.   

That doesn’t mean Lee isn’t afraid to leave behind a bad review. If a place has poor customer service or is simply not on par with his own taste, Lee is quick to say, “I’m not the target audience,” and refrains from showing videos of the restaurants that left him unsatisfied.

Unfortunately for D.C., the city earned few praises and a handful of complaints from Lee. He criticized the D.C. dining scene, saying it’s “geared directly towards alcohol,” and added that for those who don’t drink (like himself), “it seems like slim pickings.”

Indeed, many D.C.-based restaurants take pride in their happy hours and the nation’s capital, as a whole, is also hailed for its bottomless brunches. But to conclude that the city’s main focus is solely on alcohol is erroneous and takes attention away from the diverse cuisines that D.C. has to offer. Yes, the city caters to those who enjoy drinking — whether it’s socially or in a more professional setting. But it also caters to those who choose not to. 

In his criticism, Lee added that only six of the 12 D.C. restaurants he visited and reviewed would be named and featured on his TikTok account. “A lot of food we’ve been recommended since we’ve been here looks like this,” he said, showing pictures of several unappetizing, and what appeared to be soggy and discolored, foods. Lee also alleged that several restaurants, which he left unnamed, followed unsanitary practices and risked cross-contamination with shellfish, to which Lee said he’s allergic. Lee did not post or name those specific restaurants out of respect for their owners and business. 

As for the restaurants he did mention, Lee visited Okonomi Asian Grille, a fast-casual Asian-American restaurant in Fairfax, Virginia, that serves rice and noodle bowls. Lee was pleased with some of the bowls he tried and gave them a rating of 8.5 out of 10. Lee then made his way to Flavor Hive, a food truck based in Alexandria, Virginia, that went viral for its “walking nachos.” Customers bring their own bags of chips, which are then filled with their choice of protein, vegetables, and sauces for just $10 each. Despite the cool concept, Lee wasn’t all that impressed after trying three large bags of chips. The beef and Fritos bag earned the highest rating of 7.9, while the chicken and gyro meat bags earned much lower scores.

Lee’s favorite spot was Dukem on U Street. The family-operated Ethiopian restaurant received widespread support on TikTok after Lydia Tefera, the daughter of one of the owners, said the restaurant was on the brink of shutting down. Lee gave the short ribs a 9 out of 10 and praised Dukem as “the best food we’ve had in D.C.”

Lee also ventured into Southwest D.C., where he stopped by Hong Kong Delite Carry Out to try fried rice and chicken wings coated in the District’s famed mumbo sauce (he gave his $12 takeout order a rating of 8.6). He also visited Cane, a Trinidadian spot on H Street that earned its highest rating of 7.9; along with Smize & Dream, Tyra Banks’ D.C.-based pop-up shop.

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Where Lee fell short was his choice of restaurants. Aside from trying Ethiopian food (a cuisine the DMV area is especially known for due to its large Ethiopian community) and mumbo sauce, Lee didn’t try any other notable D.C. specialties. Those include half-smokes, a type of hot dog that’s made from coarsely ground meat (usually half pork and half beef) and is spicier in flavor; pupusas, a thick, stuffed corn cake that’s the national dish of El Salvador; Peruvian chicken; Ghanaian food or, even, a jumbo slice of greasy pizza. There’s also the Chesapeake blue crabs and oysters, (but for the sake of Lee’s health, he can pass on those).

If Lee decides to give D.C. a second chance, he should consider popping into Roaming Rooster, a DMV chain that serves delicious fried chicken sandwiches, wings and fries; along with Stachowski’s Market, a chef-driven butcher shop, deli and market that touts a half-smoke with onions and mustard. There’s also Ercilia’s Restaurant, which serves tacos, pupusas, burritos and various Central American foods; and Hedzole, a hot spot for Ghanaian-American food.

D.C. isn’t the first major city that Lee (politely) criticized. He garnered backlash last October for his not-so-positive reviews of Atlanta’s food scene.

As for whether Lee will return to D.C., only time will tell. As for whether he should, the answer is a confident yes.