The 311 app has been broken for ages. What gives?

The car has been in the same spot for months, Jimmie Williams says, near his house in Penn Branch. It has Florida tags. Several of his neighbors have complained that it appears abandoned. It’s taking up a parking spot, and he’s ready to see it go.

Someone faced with this issue might call their representative on the hyperlocal Advisory Neighborhood Commission. But Williams is the ANC commissioner, and he knows that the first step is to submit a 311 request to the city — and to keep submitting documentation until the car is towed.

“I tried to put it through the 311 app,” he said. “I’ve never been able to complete it."

The app isn’t the only way to request services from the city, but it’s particularly popular among regular users of 311 because you can immediately document issues right from your phone when you see them. 

“The app to me was streamlined and easier to use, and that's why I liked it,” Williams said. “You can see your case number, you can upload pictures. That was very convenient.”

But for more than a month, many users have reported being unable to submit requests through the 311 app. And a number of Reddit users have reported significant issues dating back at least six months.

This reporter repeatedly tried to open two types of requests (an abandoned bicycle and an overflowing trash can) last week and received an error message every time. The one and only time I was able to open a request, the app froze at the address stage and then crashed.

“The app is completely unusable,” one resident wrote on Reddit in April. “And of course there’s no way to submit a 311 request about 311 itself.”

D.C.’s Office of Unified Communications posted an alert to the 311 web portal on May 1 saying they were “aware of and addressing issues” with the mobile app, which is available on both Android and iOS.

OUC encouraged residents to submit their service requests via alternative methods, which include a web portal, phone line, text line, live chat, and Twitter. But a month later, the alert about the app is still active — and OUC has not shared details on what’s causing the problems or when they’ll be addressed.

It’s not for lack of people trying to get answers. 

A group of ANC commissioners wrote to OUC last month asking for more information and proactive communication from the agency about the app’s ongoing unreliability, as well as to report separate issues with the website and phone line. “That these problems have persisted for weeks is, frankly, unacceptable,” wrote Josh Jacobson, who represents an area along Georgia Avenue NW near Banneker Pool and led the effort.

While OUC director Heather McGaffin responded immediately with assurances that they are working “closely” with developers and D.C.’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, she didn’t provide a timeline or explanation of the issues. In a follow up email to the group, she noted that other cities are experiencing similar problems and said only that “while I don't feel comfortable giving you an exact date, what I can say is that we are testing solutions now and identifying issues.”

In a statement to The 51st, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer said that they are working with OUC and the vendor “to ensure functionality is restored.” OCTO, OUC, and the mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment about the issues or timeline for repair.

D.C. 311 started as a police non-emergency line in 2000, but it has connected residents to city services more broadly since 2008. (And OUC moved non-emergency police calls back to 311 in 2019, part of an effort to streamline operations at D.C.’s often-struggling 911 call center.) 

Today, 311 is the main way to get nearly any kind of city service, including emptying overflowing public trash bins and collecting yard waste; fixing broken streetlights, sidewalks, and stop signs; and even scraping roadkill off the street. The city received more than 440,000 requests last year (across all its channels), which averages out to more than 1,200 each day. 

But issues with the app didn’t start this month. “When it works, it works, and when it doesn't, it doesn't,” said Williams. “However, I would say this is the longest period of app glitchiness I've seen.” 

Accenture holds the contract to maintain D.C.’s 311 system (as well as a number of other cities), and the Office of Unified Communications pays them more than $400,000 a year to do so.  

The app, which launched in 2012, is complex to use under the best of conditions. Some of that is intentional, according to Erin Palmer, a former ANC commissioner in Takoma. All of the questions involved in submitting a request “are meant to elicit the information they need to do the thing that you want them to do,” she explained.

Palmer was recognized by OUC in 2021 as a 311 “super user.” That year, she started organizing D.C. residents to report sidewalk safety issues to 311 as part of an ongoing project called Sidewalk Palooza (a cheeky response to the fact that the city itself regularly organizes alley and pothole paloozas, but doesn’t devote the same kind of attention to sidewalks).

Years of submitting these requests, and watching the results, have encouraged Palmer “to use the app or the website, as opposed to calling or something else, because the prompts are meant to give them the exact information they need,” she says.

Palmer has not been affected by the most recent app issues (she hypothesizes that her phone is so old that she’s using an un-updated version that still works), but she emphasizes that it’s always been glitchy. “Sometimes you're in the app and go through the effort of answering all the prompts and submitting your information,” she says, and then the app freezes. “That's extremely frustrating.”

Indeed, both the Android and Apple apps have abysmal ratings: 2.8 and 1.3 stars, respectively. (Users can report issues with the apps, and other methods of contacting 311, directly to the city using this feedback form.)

Residents’ issues receiving city services have become a campaign issue in the mayoral primary.

Asked about the delivery of city services in an interview with The Georgetowner, Ward 4 councilmember Janeese Lewis George said, “constituents feel as if they are complaining into a void,” adding that she wants to improve 311 response times. In the same interview, former at-large councilmember Kenyan McDuffie brought up addressing issues like potholes and rats, among many others, suggesting using AI to process 311 calls.

But neither has made it the center of their mayoral campaign like Rini Sampath, a first-time candidate for office in D.C who is running on the premise that we need to “fix the basics.”

“D.C. residents don't want career politicians who speak in abstract terms, but they rather just want their everyday life to feel better, and that only happens when we take care of municipal promises,” Sampath says.

Basic services like snow removal, emergency response, and even 311 itself, she says, aren’t “minor inconveniences” but rather “a true life or death issue,” she says, citing examples like William Ostertag, who died after 911 dispatchers allegedly misclassified his cardiac arrest as a seizure, and a neighbor who was homebound for 16 days following the January snowstorm due to inadequate snow removal.

Terry Lynch, who is running for the Ward 1 Council seat and is another officially recognized 311 super user (he files 50-100 requests every day via email), also argues that seemingly minor issues can contribute to some of the city’s most pressing problems. “The little things are big things, everything counts,” he says. 

Sampath argues that improving the 311 app’s functionality and reliability is “low-hanging fruit,” something relatively straightforward that would improve D.C. residents’ quality of life. To demonstrate, a group of her campaign volunteers (with the support of AI tools) have already created a prototype for a new 311 app. 

“We wanted to show people the way that we would lead if we're in the administration,” she explained. 

Their app is intentionally faster, cleaner, and simpler to use, according to Sampath (though of course, it’s not actually connected to government agencies). The design makes room for more detailed updates from city agencies and also proposes new features such as the option to see and contribute to recent requests. (The city currently has an open data platform where you can see the status of recent 311 requests, but it’s light on detail and does not enable additions).

But the bigger problem, Sampath noted, “is the actual coordination between the agencies” in fulfilling service requests. She said they’re hearing from voters across that city that their needs aren’t being met, a point echoed by Ward 7 ANC commissioner Ashley Renee Ruff.

“Even before the system went down, we were putting in 311 requests, and they were closed out prematurely, or people would not tell the truth” when providing updates on the fulfillment process, she told The 51st.

While formally making requests provides a receipt for service requests, Ruff said ultimately, “I don't like putting in 311 no more. I go straight to the office, or whoever's running that particular department, and I go in and I put my request in, because I feel like the system is not working. The system doesn't benefit us, especially not in the marginalized communities.”

These are the high stakes of the government systems like 311 not working, according to Palmer: “It’s extremely problematic to have something that signals and teaches people that government services are unreliable,” she says.

The app is the best method residents have for engaging in the process, she explained, because it allows for real-time reports, ensures city agencies get all the information they need to respond, and ultimately creates a larger record of requests that is often used to understand the city. 

And logging into the system (when that works) also helps residents to keep track of their case numbers, so that they can follow up with their ANC or the relevant city agency, Williams added.

Ward 1 ANC commissioner Josh Jacobson, who wrote the letter to OUC, said, “fundamentally, 311 is a wrapper for government services.” Ongoing and recent issues with the system reflect poorly on the city government, he added: “Frankly, it’s just embarrassing that it’s been broken so long.”