WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — There have been several high-profile incidents of D.C.’s 911 system going down.

Now, the Office of Unified Communications is getting a much-needed upgrade.

DC’s 911 call center under new leadership, direction

The IT issues are just part of the problem. There are also major staffing issues that some allege have led to errors.

City officials spoke for the first time publicly since a baby died while the system shut down earlier this month.

Since December of last year, D.C. City Administrator, Kevin Donahue, said there have been 18 incidents of the 911 system going down for a period of time.

“Eight of the 18 had some pretty significant effects. It has more systemic in nature and most of those dealt with dispatch,” Donahue said.

One of those outages on Aug. 2 lasted two hours. Donahue said a contract employee pushed a change to every workstation at the 911 center instead of the planned one or two stations.

“Totally unacceptable. Totally outside of the norm and expectation of what this person should have done,” Donahue said.

The contractor was fired that day and the Metropolitan Police Department is investigating what happened.

“Whether it was a mistake, perhaps lack of training, lack of similarity, or whether it was negligence of a criminal nature is an open question,” Donahue said.

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

During that time a five-month-old died. The family first couldn’t contact 911 and then with pen and paper, dispatchers sent medics who were already on another call to the address.

Donahue said everyone followed protocol.

“But the protocol wasn’t sufficient to be able to accurately understand that we had a unit that the system showed us available, but in fact wasn’t,” Donahue said.

OUC Director Heather McGaffin said her staff did all they could.

“My condolences to the family. Losing a child is unimaginable. Our call takers did everything that they could in those moments to reassure and offer guidance during that time,” McGaffin said.

Donahue said they have a 22-point plan to address the computer-aided dispatch outages.
The most important part is equipment upgrades.

“The equipment we have was not able to keep up with the demands that are being placed on it,” Donahue said.

DC’s 911 response to shooting worries woman after waiting on hold for nearly 90 seconds

Around $2.5 million of upgrades wasn’t going to start until the new fiscal year on Oct. 1 but because of these incidents, the IT has money now to start doing upgrades.

“We have to learn from that and change how we do things so that there’s not going to be another instance of a family in a similar circumstance,” Donahue said.

Another big component of the problems with 911 is staffing.

Twenty-two call takers are starting at the end of this month. Nineteen vacant dispatcher positions will be filled through promotions from within OUC.

D.C. handles about 1.8 million calls a year. Call takers and dispatchers handle 70 or 80 calls per 12-hour shift.

DC’s 911 Call Center coming under fire

McGaffin said when they’re fully staffed they’ll look at reducing shift hours from 12 to eight or 10.

“We hold people accountable. We retrain and we separate when we have to,” McGaffin said.

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Jason Lewis, 42, argued that he acted in self-defense when he fatally shot 13-year-old Karon Blake

A former Washington, D.C. government worker has been found guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of an unarmed teenage boy he had accused of breaking into cars in his neighborhood, authorities said.

Jason Lewis, 42, was handed down the guilty verdict by a D.C. Superior Court jury on Friday, Aug. 16, in connection with the 2023 killing of 13-year-old Karon Blake, according to a press release shared by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. The jury acquitted Lewis of a second-degree murder charge.

According to the Associated Press, The Washington Post and a DC News Now, Lewis was a longtime D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation employee and was placed on administrative leave on Jan. 31, 2023, after surrendering to police in connection with the case.

Lewis argued he acted in self-defense when he shot at two young children — one of whom was Blake — he believed were breaking into cars in his Northeast, D.C., neighborhood at around 4 a.m. on Jan. 7, 2023, according to prosecutors.

D.C., Govt. Worker Accused of Fatally Shooting 13-Year-Old Black Boy He Claimed Was Trying to Break into Cars

Prosecutors said Lewis, who was armed with a fully-loaded registered handgun, was seen on video leaving his house and shooting in the direction of two children, hitting a car that one was driving. Blake then “ran in Lewis’ direction” and Lewis fired two shots at Blake, killing him, according to the release.

“Lewis claimed that he acted in self-defense because the two people that he initially fired at threatened him,” the release states.

Lewis testified during the trial that he went outside his home to investigate after hearing noises and seeing someone he believed was tampering with cars, NBC 4 Washington reports. He claimed in court that he feared for his life and opened fire after seeing Blake run towards him, according to the outlet.

“I’m sorry! I’m just a kid!” Blake can be heard repeatedly saying in the video footage shown in court, per the AP. The boy was pronounced dead at a local hospital shortly after the shooting, police previously said.

However, prosecutors denied Lewis’ claim of self-defense, saying that he didn’t wait to see whether Blake was unarmed, DC News Now reports.

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The shooting sparked outrage in the area after misinformation about the suspect’s identity was spread online. At the time, former Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee III cited the ongoing investigation as the reason why the gunman’s identity was not immediately made public.

He mentioned during a January 2023 press conference that the police department became aware of photos that were circulating on social media showing “people who have nothing to do with this case, and people are making allegations centered around race, and it’s wrong.” The former police chief later confirmed that the gunman is Black.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser also criticized Lewis’ actions and encouraged people to call 911 instead of taking the law into their own hands, according to NBC 4 Washington.

According to a GoFundMe launched in the wake of his death, Blake was remembered as a “quiet and inquisitive scholar who loved fashion and football.” Loved ones also said on the fundraiser that he was a student at Brookland Middle School.

Lewis was found guilty of three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of voluntary manslaughter while armed, committed against a minor, prosecutors said.

Lewis is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 25. According to prosecutors, he faces a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison.

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CNN
 — 

Washington, DC, Councilman Trayon White allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme to use his elected position to keep government contracts flowing to two companies, federal prosecutors say, accepting envelopes with thousands of dollars in cash and lucrative kickbacks.

White, who represents southeast DC, was arrested by the FBI Sunday and is set to appear in DC’s federal courthouse Monday afternoon.

As part of the alleged bribery scheme, White would get kickbacks from multimillion-dollar city contracts related to violence intervention services in DC. All told, White agreed to take $156,000 in cash for his work – or 3% percent of the contracts’ value, prosecutors allege.

The scheme played out in recorded conversations, prosecutors said in court documents. White made the alleged agreements with a local businessman who had contracts with the DC government. That man, unbeknownst to White, had pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges and was working with law enforcement.

White repeatedly indicated to the informant that he needed money, according to recordings cited in court documents, saying that he was “hurting.” The recordings described in court filings also show that the informant offered White thousands of dollars in cash to push city officials toward specific contracts that would benefit his businesses, and to brainstorm additional contracts that they could try to acquire in the future.

In one conversation, White was recorded asking the informant what they needed from him.

“I don’t, I don’t wanna feel like you gotta gimme something to get something. We better than that,” White said, before taking an envelope filled with thousands in cash from the informant.

The councilman allegedly boasted about his influence, telling the informant that “I’m a huge voice when it comes to violent prevention and the Council” and that “I got great weight when it comes to violence” initiatives.

The two also discussed how White would use his position of power as a councilman to pressure government employees to “support” him, according to court documents. White recounted some of those conversations in recorded conversations with the informant, in one instance saying that he told a government employee: “The only way I’m gonna support you, if you support me.”