US cops calls from confused West Aussies

A police station in the US has been receiving calls from dozens of West Australians who don't know how to use Google.

The Northbridge police department in Massachusetts, southwest of Boston, gets about one to two calls a week from people in Perth who are trying to contact their local station, which is also called Northbridge.

Dispatcher Lisa Gaylord has told AAP the calls have been coming for months but now it doesn't take police long to realise when the caller has made a mistake.

"As soon as we hear that Australian accent we say `you know you're calling the Northbridge police department in Massachusetts in the United States?'," Ms Gaylord said.

"That usually ends the phone call."

Ms Gaylord said a few of the callers had explained they had Googled Northbridge police and hit the automatic dial button that does not show a phone number.

This search result is produced when a person uses Google's international search engine rather than the Australian one, which has an "au" on the end of the URL.

When one man realised he had made an international call he "pretty much swore and said `this call is going to cost me a fortune'," Ms Gaylord said.