Crime-plagued Washington DC offers 911 dispatchers $800 bonus just for showing up to work as chronic absenteeism forces fire department to take drastic step: 'This is crazy'

The bosses of Washington DC's ailing emergency call system have started offering their employees an extra $800 a month just to show up to work on time.

This desperate move came after the number of dangerously understaffed shifts rose from 24 percent in May to 88 percent in July.

Emergency calls have been lost seven times this year due to IT outages. At the beginning of the month, for example, a five-month-old baby died during a two-hour outage.

And the system has become so unreliable that DC Fire and EMS have now set up a shadow dispatch department for the calls they must handle.

“Doesn’t it seem incredible to you that our emergency services have set up a workaround for our emergency call center?” asked Washington DC City Councilwoman Brianne Nadeau. “This is complete insanity.”

The sprawling 911 headquarters on the St. Elizabeth campus in the southeast of the city was dangerously understaffed 88 percent of the time in July

The news about the monthly bonus was announced Tuesday morning in an email to staff from Heather McGaffin, director of the city's Office of Unified Communications (OUC).

“Good morning, 911 team,” she wrote. “Effective immediately, all 911 operators who show up for all of their scheduled shifts will receive an $800 bonus for the month.”

“Staffing is critical to the success of our agency. Unplanned calls of all kinds are on the rise and are causing difficulties for our colleagues who are constantly stuck, coming in early or being asked to come in on days off.

“The pilot is simple: Show up for any shift you're assigned to and get $800 extra for the month. We're launching today in August.”

The offer sparked outrage in a city where 321 callers hung up on Sunday alone because their calls were not answered.

“I'm not sure I want chronically absent employees coming to work when lives are literally on the line,” one wrote. “Hire better people, raise base pay, improve training.”

Last year, the city's murder rate rose 35 percent to 274, and property crimes increased by a quarter.

Water levels are beginning to drop, but the malfunctioning operations center is responsible for an increasing number of avoidable deaths.

A passerby called 911 after seeing a Dodge Charger plunge into the Potomac River next to the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in April last year.

But drivers Timjuan Mundell, 46, drowned along with his three passengers when Dispatchers sent emergency crews to another bridge a mile upstream.

And a five-month-old baby died in the Woodley Park district on August 2 after suffering cardiac arrest after waiting 15 minutes for help. At the time, the control system was paralyzed due to an allegedly botched software update.

Former 911 interim director Cleo Subido discovered when she was appointed in 2020 that the ceiling screens that were supposed to broadcast local newscasts were set to sporting events

Council member Charles Allen said the executive “doesn’t even want to admit there is a big problem”

Many were appalled that employees needed a bonus just to come to work, others were understanding of the conditions in the

Council member Charles Allen said the problems at OUC have now reached critical levels.

“Not a week goes by without a voter contacting me who was unable to get through, had to wait a long time for emergency first responders to be dispatched, or received the wrong help or no help at all on the ground,” he said.

But in a city that receives 1.8 million emergency calls each year, the system has been notoriously poor for decades.

As early as 2008, firefighters publicly complained that dispatchers told them “S for celery” when directing them to S Street and “Q for cucumber” when directing them to Q Street.

A 2021 audit by City Auditor Kathleen Patterson uncovered a number of deficiencies.

“We basically found an agency that was dysfunctional in every area,” she told Washingtonian.com.

Rescue workers were regularly sent to the wrong addresses because they chatted with callers instead of using software to determine their location.

While “cliques, bullying and uncorrected inappropriate behavior” were widespread in the workplace.

“Lack of personnel, lack of training, lack of use of technology, lack of oversight, lack of control of the chain of command. It might be easier to say what we didn't find,” she said.

Cleo Subido, who was appointed interim director in December 2020, noted that the giant screens on the ceiling that were supposed to broadcast local news were instead showing sporting events.

She found that her superiors pitted their employees against each other, tolerated poor performance, and resisted reforms for fear of disrupting office politics.

Last year, she filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that city officials “have repeatedly attempted to cover up OUC's mistakes and mismanagement and to downplay serious, life-threatening – and often fatal – errors.”

Activist Dave Statter says he has some sympathy for the dispatchers who are on the front lines of the action.

“You know how desperate the situation is there,” he said.

“Many of these people have had to work overtime during their shift. They are pretty stressed, and some of them have gone to other emergency calls.”

“The problems with 9/11 basically boil down to training and, most importantly, leadership.”

“They always seem to spend more time covering things up than trying to fix them.”

“The place has been in crisis for a long time. And it is getting worse.”

“In fact, I've been saying for some time that the recent 9/11 affair in this district is perhaps the worst I've ever seen in the 40-plus years I've covered it. It's in dire shape, and nobody seems to care.”

As early as 2008, firefighters publicly complained that dispatchers told them “S for celery” when directing them to S Street and “Q for cucumber” when directing them to Q Street.

The system has become so unreliable that DC Fire and EMS have resorted to setting up a shadow dispatch operation for the calls they must handle.

An OUC spokesperson told DC News Now, “We appreciate the hard work of our team at OUC and will continue to recognize and reward those efforts.”

“Staffing is critical to the agency’s success and we will continue to look for ways to improve agency performance while being good stewards of the district’s resources.”

Councilman Allen said responsibility for the failures ultimately lies with Murial Browser, who has been mayor of the city since 2015.

“The executive branch doesn't even want to admit that there is a major problem – but if it's true that they're paying people $800 just to come to work, then that's a clear admission that we're dealing with an agency that desperately needs major change,” he said.

“The people of Washington DC are shaken and have no confidence in the leadership and the clear direction to turn the agency around. This is a huge problem.”