Every phone number on county-police.org is checked by hand against the official website of the agency before it is published, and rechecked over time. This page explains exactly how, what goes wrong with police phone numbers, and how you can check a number yourself.
Our rules
- Official sources only. The number must appear on the website of the police department, the sheriff’s office, or the city or county government. We do not use phone directories, review sites or other number-listing websites as a source, because they copy each other and keep old numbers for years.
- The line the agency labels non-emergency. If the agency publishes a number labeled “non-emergency”, that is the number we list, even if a dispatch or main office number is more prominent on the page.
- Show the source and the date. Each listing says which official site the number was checked against and the month it was verified or last corrected.
- Say who actually answers. Some towns do not have their own police department and are patrolled by the county police or sheriff. When that is the case, the listing says so.
What goes wrong with police phone numbers
When we audited our first 157 listings in August 2026, 63 numbers did not match the agency’s own non-emergency line. The errors fell into four groups, and they are the same errors you will find on most phone directory websites:
The number from nowhere
A number that does not appear anywhere on the official site, usually copied from another directory years ago.
Copied digits
One digit wrong or two digits swapped, for example 8900 instead of 8989. The number looks right and rings somewhere else.
The temporary number
A backup line a department published during a phone outage, still copied around long after the outage ended.
The wrong line
Dispatch, administration, records or an office line that closes in the evening, instead of the line the agency labels non-emergency.
In November 2026 we ran a second check across the directory. Ten numbers were corrected, mostly because the agency had changed its number since the summer or because a dispatch or administrative line had been recorded instead of the non-emergency line.
How to check a number yourself
- Search for the official website of the city or county (government sites in the US usually end in .gov, .us or the city name followed by .org or .com) and open the police department page.
- Look for the word “non-emergency” next to the number. Contact pages often list several numbers; the main or dispatch number is not always the right one.
- If you live outside city limits, the sheriff’s office or county police may be the agency that answers. Our guide Police department vs sheriff’s office explains how to tell.
- Some areas also have a 311 line for city services. See what 311 is and when to use it.
What we cannot guarantee
Agencies change their numbers without notice, and phone systems fail. We check carefully, but we cannot guarantee that every number is current at the moment you call. If something is urgent, call 911.
Report a problem with a number
If a number does not work or reaches the wrong office, please tell us through the contact page or at admin@county-police.org. Include the city and, if you can, the number that worked for you. We recheck it against the official website before changing anything.