WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Missed and dropped calls and long periods of waiting before a call is answered. That’s what the D.C. residents have been facing from the District’s 911 Call Center.

There were a myriad complaints from more than 20 witnesses who testified before D.C. City Council’s judiciary and public safety committee about the Office of Unified Communication’s 911 Call Center.

The agency, now overseen by 911 Call Center Director Heather McGaffin, has been under fire for mistakes that have even led to death. Many called for more transparency and accountability for the agency that says it has struggled with hiring and low morale.

“In recent years, significant and very troubling concerns and experiences have been raised regarding the operations of the District’s standalone call center,” said Brooke Pinto, the councilmember who leads the committee.

Pinto, who pushed through the Council’s summer emergency legislation, is seeking to make the bill permanent. It includes making public a monthly list of dispatcher errors, dropped calls, staffing levels and call-to-answer times – all serious problems with the call center, officials said.

“Residents expect and should be able to expect prompt assistance from the OUC when they’re facing an emergency,” she added. “In emergencies, mere seconds can be a matter of life or death.”

The most recent high profile case of botched 911 calls involved the deaths of 10 dogs at a doggy day care that flooded in August.

Sylvia Soltis, who lives and works in D.C., said she experienced first hand the struggles with the call center. In February, she said she 911 due to a shooting at a Metro station but the call was never answered.

Then two months later, she said, she was assaulted in an attempted robbery and calls but she and witnesses’ 911 calls went unanswered.

“The trauma I experienced on those two occasions was compounded when no one would answer my 911 calls,” Soltis said. “All you see is failures inflict unnecessary trauma on people in need. It is wrong. I’m here today because no one should go through what I did.”

Soltis called it “an awful feeling” to have to accept that no one is coming.

McGaffin, who testified later at the hearing, said her agency has stepped up training and hiring and are trying to turn a corner.

She scoffed at accusations that she has implemented less than a third of the recommendations made in a scathing D.C. auditor report that states the agency is failing in many ways.

McGaffin called the assertions “simply inaccurate.”

“We know there is work to do here,” she said. “The majority of my phone calls are being answered swiftly and we will continue to work to lower wait times.”

Councilmembers are expected to take up the permanent 911 call center legislation later this fall.