The Baltimore Police Department received a $422,366 federal grant yesterday to enhance its 311 nonemergency number and enable dispatchers to send calls to municipal agencies to speed services.

Many of the 600,000 calls received on 311 lines each year are not police-related, officials said, and the money will be used to route those calls to a Neighborhood Service Center.

Baltimore was the first city in the nation to implement a three-digit nonemergency number to help ease an overwhelmed 911 system.

Pub Date: 2/19/99