Titan Of Trinidad

In response to allegations raised on the Brookland listserv and in a WJLA ABC 7 interview, wherein a robbery victim alleged that 911 call takers hung up on her three times, the Office of Unified Communications investigated.   Their investigation concluded that the call takers received the calls, but were unable to hear anyone on the line.  In short, there was some issue outside of DC’s 911 center that caused the problems.

It is unclear if the 911 calltakers, upon receiving 3 calls from the same number, did not try to return the calls or try to dispatch police to the cell phone’s location. Under federal enhanced 911 regulations, wireless carriers have been capable to locating a 911 caller’s position within 300 meters since 2005.

From OUC:

On May 19, 2013 a caller located in the District of Columbia attempted to call 911 on three occasions from a cell phone between 9:33 and 9:34pm.  The Office of Unified Communications (OUC) did receive the calls, however upon investigation only the call takers’ voice can be heard on the recording despite repeated requests for the caller to identify themselves and their emergency.  The call takers who handled the calls indicated that there was an open line and waited for aresponse from the caller, but no response was audible. On all three occasions,  two separate call takers experienced the same silence from this specific caller, which possibly indicates that the caller’s cell phone was muted, or that there was a carrier issue.

 

Another individual called at 9:47pm and that call was also received by the Office of Unified Communications.  The audio of this call was reported as an attempted robbery.  The OUC quickly dispatched two police units at 9:49pm.

 

All calls for service are taken seriously at the OUC, as we recognize the urgency of emergency situations.  Our investigation indicates that our emergency communication system is working properly.  On May 19^th 2013, (3,474) calls for service were answered and processed without incident. There was no indication that other callers experienced a similar 911 interaction.

 

Call taker displaying disgust.

UPDATE: We have requested a copy of the 911 calls from the Office of Unified Communications and will update when we hear back.

UPDATE 2: WJLA has a post up as of 5:18pm, but no word yet from DC’s 911 center: http://wj.la/163dgd5

UPDATE 3: DC’s OUC investigated, and found that the call recordings show that the call takers received the calls, but were not able to hear anyone on the line.  Response from OUC is here.

From the Brookland listserv, a resident posts a summary of a recent robbery, including that the victim reported that the 911 operator hung up on the victim three times:

Our friend was walking home from metro and was approached by a young (late teens/ early twenties) black male from behind – skinny, wearing jeans, dark colored shirt, ski mask, small silver handgun. He came up behind her on 10th between Perry street and Perry place at about 930. He told her to ‘give me your pockets,’ she told him she didn’t have money and then she started yelling for help to passing cars. He took off, jumping the fence at turkey thicket and running east through the park. She’s fine, but shaken. Luckily it was probably his first time and so he didn’t push the matter. Police have taken the report, but only after she was hung up on by dispatch three times and so my husband called for her. RIDICULOUS! Be careful out there.

Wow! Now that’s scary.  Glad it worked out and the police eventually responded, but the police were no doubt delayed by 911 hanging up THREE TIMES on the victim, before her husband called for her.  It’s easy to imagine many other situations where a victim may only have the chance to make one critical call to 911, where time is of the essence.

Of note, Mayor Gray selected former MPD fifth district Commander Jennifer Greene to head the Office of Unified Communications, which oversees 911 and 311.

According to grade.dc.gov, the Office of Unified Communications has a current grade of “B+”, but you can submit your feedback to them here.

Back in March, we reported on a hit-and-run case where a driver sped down the 1100 block of Florida Avenue, striking a woman in a crosswalk with such an impact that she flew out of her shoes. The driver left the scene, but police effected an arrest of the suspect on Capitol Hill a few blocks away.

A reader writes:

Do you have any update on the FL Ave hit and run case?

We checked DC Superior Court records, and it appears that the defendant, Joel Bromwell, pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter charges earlier this month.  His sentencing is set for August 30th at 10:30am in courtroom 202.

In DC, manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.