New numbers show people making emergency calls in Kansas City, Missouri, are waiting much longer to have Kansas City Police Department Dispatchers answer those calls than industry standards.April numbers released by the Mid-America Regional Council , which connects eleven area counties for emergency communications, show KCPD dispatchers had more than 52,000 911 calls in April.KCPD 911 dispatchers answered less than half of those calls within 15 seconds.Industry standards state 90 percent of calls should be answered by then.Additionally, industry standards state 99 percent of 911 calls should be answered within 40 seconds.But KCPD dispatchers answered 66 percent or less than two-thirds of those calls.The data also shows KCPD dispatchers answered 75 percent of 911 calls within a minute.It means roughly one in four people placing an emergency call were still waiting for that call to be answered after a minute.“We judge the police department, the fire department on response time after a call is dispatched. But we're missing the minutes in advance,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said.The mayor now has a personal, family experience with this issue.In a tweet early Thursday morning, Mayor Lucas noted his sister’s 911 call was answered, but she had to wait on hold for five minutes after she found their mother incapacitated in front of her home.“No one should be waiting on hold when they call 911. Full stop. And that's something that needs to change in Kansas City, whether it's my mother, whether it's anybody. It is a terrifying experience,” Lucas said.He said part of the answer is better pay, better hours and more dispatchers.Lucas said the current mandatory overtime system due to short staffing levels is problematic.“You have a lot of people that are already working long shifts. But if we don't have enough people on staff, they're required to work more. Think about it. If it's a hard job, right? And it's a tough job to get people in, and you're making them work mandatory overtime, changing what they can do with their families -- Folks aren't going to stay,” Lucas said.There are currently 26 openings in communications which includes call takers and dispatchers, according to Kansas City police. The mayor also said the hiring process for KCPD and the Kansas City Fire Department needs to be expedited.He said his mother is currently hospitalized and on the road to recovery.A longer wait might have changed the outcome.KMBC Investigates reached out to KCPD for comment on the 911 call data.So far, there’s been no response.