In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a process for handling emergency calls from a caller in a voice over IP system is described. The process involves receiving a routing request message including a caller identifier and a callee identifier. The process also involves setting an emergency call flag active in response to the callee identifier matching an emergency call identifier pre-associated with the caller. The process further involves producing an emergency response center identifier in response to the emergency call identifier. The process also involves determining whether the caller identifier is associated with a pre-associated direct inward dialing (DID) identifier. The process further involves producing a direct inward dialing (DID) identifier for the caller by associating a temporary DID identifier with the caller identifier when the emergency call flag is active and it is determined that the caller has no pre-associated DID. The process also involves producing a routing message including the emergency response center identifier and the temporary DID identifier for receipt by a routing controller operable to cause a route to be established between the caller and the emergency response center.