We want to remind everybody to add the 208 area code before dialing Ada County Dispatch’s non-emergency line at 377-6790 — now known as (208) 377-6790.
Starting Saturday, Aug. 5, all local calls placed in Idaho require you to dial 208 before entering a number. If you don’t, you’ll get a recorded message telling you to dial the 10-digit version of the number.
So if you have our non-emergency dispatch number programmed into your phone, please make sure it has at 208 area code.
911 calls are not affected by the change. If you have an emergency, dial 911 every time.
We get about twice as many non-emergency calls in to dispatch than 911 emergency calls, so it is very important those calls go through as efficiently as possible, which means adding the 208.
For instance, in 2016, our dispatchers took at total of 388,541 calls. 264,611 of those came in on our non-emergency dispatch (208) 377-6790 number. 123,840 were 911 calls.
This happening because Idaho is about to get a new area code – 986 – which will start being assigned to new phone numbers on Sept. 5.
For more info on the what and the why of all this, check out http://www.puc.idaho.gov/Area%20code%20Q%20and%20A.pdf