KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Police Maj. Greg Williams believes that an auto attendant or a prompt for 911 callers could be in place early next year. 

Over the summer, the Kansas City Police Department asked for a prompt to be added to their 911 system to hopefully cut down on wait times callers have. A person could press one for police, two for fire, and three for EMS.

The Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) coordinates the system KCPD uses. MARC’s Public Safety Communications Board tabled an agenda item dealing with that prompt in July, angering Mayor Quinton Lucas.

On Monday, Jackson County’s 911 Oversight Committee held a public hearing on 911 wait times. Legislators said the change to add a prompt system will take time. 

“I just think that it has to be done in a way that we’ll work together, and we see this not as a divide,” Democratic Jackson County Legislator Jalen Anderson said Monday.

“The idea that one city is the largest and the rest have to kind of follow behind, I think we should all be working together.”

Anderson said he wasn’t being critical of the city’s efforts.

In August, the county paid KCPD $1.5 million to upgrade its servers for 911 dispatch. The county’s also spending $200,000 for a study on the issue of long 911 wait times.