Hagerstown has changed its police department’s nonemergency phone number to save money.
The new nonemergency phone number has changed to 765-973-9355.
Soon the 765-489-4711 number will be deactivated.
A vendor increased the cost of the 489 line to $1,200 a month, or more than $14,000 per year.
Councilor Chris Blaase, who retired as an officer from HPD in 2022, explained on the police department’s social media that he supports the change.
Blaase said Frontier quadrupled the fee for the 489 line since the beginning of the year, so every call on that line now costs the town about $3.84.
Both phone lines are answered at Wayne County E911 Center in Richmond, Blaase said.
Town councilor Dillon Pitcher thanked Hagerstown Police Chief Keith Folkner for being a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars. Pitcher is a patrol officer for Cambridge City Police Department.
Pitcher said the 489 police line rings fewer than 10 times a day on average.
“The same dedicated personnel are still answering your calls, just at a different number,” Pitcher said. “We’re not losing service, we’re saving money. That seems like the right kind of change to me.”
A version of this article will appear in the June 11 2025 print edition of the Western Wayne News.