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D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Wednesday cut the ribbon on renovations to the city鈥檚 Public Safety Communications Center, a second 911 call center to ensure the emergency hotline infrastructure never goes offline.
The opening caps an $18.5 million project that included new technology and more space. The city knocked down walls to make the space bigger by 40%, according to Heather McGaffin, director of the Office of Unified Communications.
Previously, in the event of an emergency that disrupted operations at the Unified Communications Center, all of the necessary staff wouldn鈥檛 fit at the PSCC, McGaffin said. Now, 鈥渨e can absolutely bring everybody here, including our partners from the fire department and police department,鈥� she said.
A small team worked in the basement of the PSCC during the renovations. But within a few weeks, half the call takers and dispatchers will be at the site near Howard University. The others will be at the UCC in Southeast.
鈥淚t is absolutely imperative that 911 centers all across this nation have a secondary center so that 911 doesn鈥檛 go dark if there is an emergency,鈥� McGaffin said. 鈥淲e have come here several times for just that type of situation.鈥�
Relocating the entire team isn鈥檛 a common occurrence, but it has happened, McGaffin said.
A few years ago, a fire near the UCC building caused officials to close local roads.
鈥淎t shift change, we were able to get here,鈥� McGaffin said. 鈥淒uring major events, folks show up here if they live nearby, because this center can run in sync with our UCC.鈥�
The renovated PSCC will run 24/7, 鈥渂ecause if there is an emergency, it鈥檚 a lot easier to move half your workforce here than to try to move everybody here,鈥� McGaffin said.
The embattled agency has filled 90% of its vacancies for both call takers and dispatchers. The goal, McGaffin said, is to always have “127 call takers, 107 dispatchers and 20 supervisors across the four shifts.”
Devon Williams, who鈥檚 been a fire dispatcher with the agency for 17 years, described the renovated center as 鈥渞eally high tech. It鈥檚 a lot of new bells and whistles that we didn鈥檛 have previously.鈥�
The city鈥檚 911 call center has been scrutinized for periodically sending responders to the wrong locations.
鈥淭he public is pretty confident in calling 911, as evidenced by the number of times they call 911, they know that they get help,鈥� Bowser said.
Williams, meanwhile, said the city is changing and 鈥渢he street addresses are changing rapidly, buildings are in places that they weren鈥檛 before. You have a lot of visitors to the city that don鈥檛 know what quadrant of the city they鈥檙e in at any given time.鈥�
She described the challenge of the role as a 鈥減artnership between the call taker and the caller. Sometimes, the communication lines in that partnership doesn鈥檛 always work, but majority of the time, it does.鈥�
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