Nationally, 911 is a universal emergency number. It was designated for this purpose by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) so that the public had an easy-to-remember short code to reach emergency services in their community. It has since been adopted across the nation.

The FCC also gave communities the option to adopt a non-emergency short code, 311, by which the public can access non-emergency police services, and any other service the local government provides. The City of Cincinnati has adopted 311 for this purpose, in addition to our existing ten-digit phone numbers for non-emergency services.