News4 coverage of 911 outages in Washington DC sparks DC police investigation into leaks – NBC4 Washington

DC's 911 problems are taking a new turn tonight. The News4 I-Team has discovered that DC police officers are now trying to determine who leaked important information to News4.

Today, an agent with the Washington DC Police Department's Internal Investigations Division contacted News 4 reporter Ted Oberg to find out how we knew about a family's unanswered call for help.

Last week, News4 reported that a Washington, DC family called 911 repeatedly for several minutes. They said the emergency line did not answer the phone. They were trying to get help for their five-month-old child, who could not be resuscitated after a nap. They eventually made it to 911, but the baby died. We don't know if the delay would have changed the outcome.

D.C.'s deputy mayor for public safety released a timeline of calls answered by 911, but that timeline did not include calls that did not go through. The News 4 I-Team learned of the family's unanswered calls from two public safety sources, each of whom had details from an internal police file.

Today, an employee of the internal investigation agency Oberg called and asked what information we have and who gave it to us. News4 did not provide this information. We take the protection of our sources very seriously.

The internal affairs agent acknowledged that he was aware that Oberg was unlikely to answer the questions, but said the internal affairs commander had instructed him to investigate the matter and ask the questions.

The 911 call comes 13 days after these parents' desperate but unanswered 911 calls. News4 has not heard from 911 dispatcher Heather McGaffin or Lindsey Appiah, the deputy mayor in charge of D.C. public safety, on camera about the six 911 call failures this year, but has now heard from an internal affairs official.

News4 asked both the Washington DC Police Department and the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety why they thought an investigation into the leak was worth it. Neither of them gave us an answer.