Yeah, I'm baffled by the idea that the internet is the only possible way to convey information about phone numbers.
It's not even that we are old enough to have experienced looking up a number in a phone book and some people here are to young to have that experience. The obvious solution to this seemingly unsolvable problem is to print some numbers on a piece of paper and post it to each company you want to get data from in the future.
So are they issuing a new book every time a department/precinct is created, merged, disbanded, or the number is otherwise changed? This still doesn't solve the issue of authentication of the issuing party since the phone location could be unsecured, or the call rerouted.
It's not even that we are old enough to have experienced looking up a number in a phone book and some people here are to young to have that experience. The obvious solution to this seemingly unsolvable problem is to print some numbers on a piece of paper and post it to each company you want to get data from in the future.