We know there are some of the hardest working employees in the District of Columbia right here at the 911 center, run by the Office of Unified Communications. I made an unannounced visit and took a tour of the center along with staff from Councilmember Pinto’s and my offices and saw what the operation looks like, how calls are handled, and the staffing. I asked about redundancies to handle calls when technology goes out, given some of the high profile tech outages in recent months. I really appreciate Deputy Director Kelly Brown taking the time to show us around and give us a better understanding of the operations here.

It’s important as a Councilmember to be out and visiting the different operation centers we have in the District of Columbia because it really does guide the oversight that we do – the questions that I ask on the dais, the bills that I introduce, and the conversations that I have, not only with other parts of the government, but also constituents, when they ask what am I doing to ensure that the 911 call center is working.