Police report emergencies by automated call, text or e-mail

The new, Internet-based system, FirstCall Emergency Notification System, can send an automated telephone message, text or e-mail and can reach all residents and businesses in the city in about two hours or can send a message to any smaller geographic location.

Depending on your telephone service provider, your caller ID will display either "City of St. Petersburg" or a city telephone number with an 893 prefix. This is an improvement over the old system, which displayed a telephone number with an out-of-state area code.

The new system also offers an online portal for residents to self-register cell phone numbers or e-mail addresses. (Those who register will receive a confirmation e-mail with a temporary password for logging back in to the system to change their information at any time. The privacy of these numbers is protected under the normal nondisclosure agreement that FirstCall has with its clients.)

The FirstCall system can send notification alerts

The FirstCall system can send notification alerts by voice message to land-line telephones, cell phones or VOIP phones, or via text message to SMS devices. Standard text messaging rates will apply.