DC's 911 dispatch system experiences another outage; OUC reviewing

WASHINGTON (7News) — D.C.’s 911 dispatch system was down for several minutes Friday, according to the city’s Office of Communications.

Officials said the city’s Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system experienced a connectivity disruption around 5:15 p.m.

CAD is used for dispatching D.C. Fire and EMS and Metropolitan Police Department personnel.

During the outage, public safety agencies transitioned to manual dispatch. The issue was resolved within 20 minutes, according to officials.

Officials said the OUC is still able to process and receive 911 calls during CAD outages.

The outage comes one week after a 5-month-old died while the call center was experiencing technical difficulties.

RELATED | DC police investigate death of infant in Northwest as call center experiences tech issues

The Office of Unified Communications (OUC) blamed the August 2 outage on a contractor’s software update, saying the update was installed incorrectly.

The contractor was fired, 7News learned Monday.

On Friday, August 9, 7News spoke with Public Safety Advocate and long-time OUC watchdog Dave Statter.

According to Statter, this is the sixth outage since May 23.

READ MORE | 7News pushes DC’s 911 call center for answers on system disruptions

“They don’t know where all the units for D.C. Fire and EMS are located without the computer, and there’s a lot of information they don’t have, and they have to basically use pencil and paper or pen and paper to pass notes to each other to make sure everything is done right,” Statter told 7News.

“They haven’t answered what is happening with all this, why does this keep happening at OUC…They shouldn’t lose the computers this often,” Statter added.

The Office of the Chief Technology Officer and the OUC are reviewing the latest outage, according to officials