A criminal probe is underway into the computer system outage in the 9-1-1 center in the nation's capital.
Police are working to determine whether the system was taken down intentionally or through human error, News4 reported.
So far in 2024, there have been at least seven unplanned outages of the computer system that D.C.'s Office of Unified Communications (OUC) uses to dispatch fire engines and ambulances.
The death of an infant earlier this month occurred during one of those outages and brought the center under new scrutiny.
When the family of the five-month-old couldn't get through to 9-1-1, someone ran outside the apartment and found a federal police officer, who started CPR.
Firefighters continued the life-saving attempt, but wanted paramedics and an advanced life support ambulance to rush the baby to a hospital. The dispatch center repeatedly tried to send a paramedic who was unavailable and still handling another call, the station reported.
Frustration was heard in the firefighter's voice.
“We have an infant in cardiac arrest,” one said. “I’ve made everyone aware of this multiple times here on this channel … Do we have an ALS unit or a paramedic that is possibly available?”
When the system goes down, dispatch teams rely on paper and pencil to keep track of hundreds of calls, public safety officials told reporters.
Insiders explain that means call takers and dispatchers sometimes walk slips of paper from one place to another inside the dispatch center. They use radio communications to make sure fire crews knew where to go.
D.C. often points out its 911 call center is the fourth-busiest in the nation. Last year, it took an average of one emergency call every three seconds.
As many staffers don't show up for work, the city announced this week that dispatchers who report for duty for every assigned shift during the month will get an $800 bonus.
The investigation about the system failures is the only one underway.
The internal affairs division officers are trying to determine how the media obtained the information.
