ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department will soon make a notable change to its non-emergency phone line, one which police say will better serve the city.

SLMPD will switch to a fully-automated non-emergency phone line Thursday. Police say the hotline number (314-231-1212) will serve as a routing system to forward callers to specific agencies within the city or police units.

According to SLMPD, the change happens to alleviate the city’s 911 communications center from non-urgent calls that could interfere with calls for emergencies, like shootings, robberies and other critical situations.

“Our dispatchers work hard every day handling a high volume of 911 calls to our Communications Center,” said Lt. Adam Koeln, Commander of the Communications Division. “With the new automated non-emergency hotline, our goal is to provide better, more efficient services and response times to both emergency and non-emergency matters without compromising the overall level of service.”

Callers wishing to file a formal police report on non-urgent matters can continue to do so by
contacting the main non-emergency hotline number. Emergency calls will still be handled by
911 dispatch operators.

Non-emergency calls are intended for parking violations, crime tips, court-related information and similar inquires.