Tuscaloosa police say they are working with federal authorities to investigate an attack on the department's phone system.
Sgt. Brent P. Blankley said in a statement the department was targeted in an attack known as a telephone denial of service on Tuesday afternoon. Blankley says the attack involves multiple phone calls coming into the department at once, which is meant to jam the department's phone system.
Blankley says the objective of the attack is usually to prevent departments from receiving legitimate calls and disrupting public safety operations.
Blankley says more than 200 similar attacks have been reported throughout the country.
As a precaution, Blankley says blocked phone numbers and international numbers calling the department's administrative lines may not go though. He says the precautionary measure won't impact 911 emergency lines.