The former interim director of D.C.’s Office of Unified Communications, the agency that oversees the city’s 911 calls, filed suit against D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser this month for alleged retaliation after she spoke up about “dangerous inefficiencies” in the city’s long-critiqued emergency response agency.
“I would like to see a very open and transparent change in the culture of the agency,” says Cleo Subido, who led OUC as interim director from January 2021 to March 2022. “I would like them to do something to address some of these critical shortcomings and failures, because in the long run, all of those things add up to lives.”
For years, residents and officials have raised alarms about issues at the 911 center, especially after OUC errors that resulted in a death. For example, several times OUC has sent emergency responders to the wrong address, losing out on crucial minutes. Subido says she tried to address some of these failures, but was repeatedly silenced by Bowser administration officials. “Those seconds add up to lives, and I think it is what they owe the community of the District,” she says.
A lengthy complaint, filed in D.C. Superior Court earlier this month, documents a series of instances over a period of two years in which Bowser and administration officials allegedly attempted to silence Subido’s efforts to correct systemic failures and increase transparency at OUC.
Named as defendants in the case are Bowser, the Office of Unified...
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