By Police1 Staff
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A police chief is asking city officials for additional funding in order to fix 911 wait times.
KSHB.com reported that Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith called the wait times “unacceptable.”
“When you call 911 in a crisis, you should get an immediate response … it’s a major community concern, and it should be,” he said.
Average wait times increased from 26 seconds in August to 30 seconds in September. One caller waited on hold for more than 22 minutes in September, according to the report.
“We are hiring and processing as many people as we can to get our numbers back up to where they should be, but our current budgeted positions are not enough,” Chief Smith said.
Chief Smith suggested that the city hire 21 dispatchers, costing just over $1 million.