For the past month, people calling for help from St. Paul police had to give their names to get officers to respond, but anonymous callers are allowed again as of Wednesday.

St. Paul police said they asked the Ramsey County Emergency Communications Center to make the change for 911 and nonemergency calls as a precaution for officers beginning July 18, the day after three police officers were fatally shot in Baton Rouge, La.

“Police departments around the country were experiencing situations where bogus, anonymous calls were being used to generate a police response,” said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman. “When officers would arrive at these calls, they would be assaulted.”

When the police department required 911 callers to give their names and callback numbers, the ECC had a protocol for “in-progress life safety” calls, according to an ECC email to its staff.

Dispatchers were instructed to contact a police supervisor, convey the information and report the caller as anonymous. Police supervisors would then put together a game plan to respond to the call safely, Ernster said.

On Monday night, when a St. Paul resident called 911, he said he was upset that the ECC did not dispatch police because he did not want to give his full name.

SchaOn Blodgett said he was reporting suspicious activity in his Little Bohemia neighborhood off West Seventh Street. There were recent break-ins to cars and a home, and he was concerned that a man and a woman walking around with backpacks might be casing his property and a vacant home next door.

“The 911 operator, before getting this information demanded my name … Then when I refused, she started giving me the excuse about officer safety and blah blah blah,” Blodgett wrote in a Facebook post. “I chewed her out and advised if the cops are … afraid of doing their frig’n jobs, they need to quit …”

Blodgett said he had given the call taker his first name and she had his phone number, but that he was leery about giving his full name. About five years ago, he said he called 911 and was told his information would be anonymous but later found out people knew he called and he feared retaliation.

During Monday’s call, the ECC says the 911 telecommunicator told the caller about the police department’s policy, but “the caller continued to refuse to provide adequate information despite several requests,” according to John Siqveland, Ramsey County spokesman.

The telecommunicator offered that the ECC could make “a nonpriority extra patrol request” to officers for the area he was calling about, Siqveland said. But, in a review of ECC records, supervisors discovered the telecommunicator didn’t pass along the request to officers. “This exchange is currently under administrative review,” Siqveland said.

The St. Paul police department asked the ECC to return to its regular protocol for handling calls for the department, which includes allowing anonymous ones, on Wednesday.

Officers also were required to patrol with a partner as a precaution after the St. Anthony police shooting July 6 of Philando Castile and the protests that followed; that ended after about a month.

“There are still things happening around the nation, but locally we think we can return to our normal routines,” Ernster said. “We are always keeping an eye on officer safety.”

Minneapolis police began asking dispatchers on July 21 to obtain names from callers, if possible, and they continue to do so, said Sgt. Catherine Michal, a Minneapolis police spokesman. Police still respond either way, Michal said.

There were 32 firearm-related fatalities of officers around the country in the first half of this year compared with 18 in the same period last year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

“Ambush killings of unsuspecting law enforcement officers is the leading circumstance of the firearms-related fatalities with 14 thus far in 2016 — spiking more than 300 percent over the three ambush killings in the same period last year,” the organization wrote in a July report.