The /911 Command in FiveM: Emergency Calls Into the Queue Without a Dispatcher

Somebody on your server just got robbed at the gas station on Route 68. They type it in chat. Three officers are online, two of them see it, one of them answers, and twenty minutes later nobody can say who took the call or whether it was ever cleared.

An emergency call command fixes the first half of that: the call gets typed in a place that was built for it. What decides whether it fixes the second half is where the call goes next. Here is how the PlateNet /911 command moves a call from a chat line to a unit on scene, and what the /panic command does that /911 does not.

What Happens When Someone Types /911

The command is part of the PlateNet FiveM tablet resource, but it does not need the tablet open and it does not need the player to be paired. Anyone on the server can use it.

The shape is /911 leo <what is happening>, with fire or ems in place of leo.

The service word is required. A call with no service is refused, because a call that could be for anyone is a call that gets picked up by no one. The description is whatever the caller types. The resource attaches the caller's street and area from their position in the game, so nobody has to describe where they are, and the call is created in the community's CAD queue with a case number.

From there it is a call like any other. It is on DISPATCH with its location, type, and description. It is in the open queue on every patrol tablet. If AutoDispatch is on for the community, it is already being routed.

Each player can place one call every five minutes by default. The limit exists because the alternative is one player placing nine calls during one scene, and the cooldown is a setting if your community wants it shorter.

Why the Service Word Matters

The service word is not a label. It is the routing.

A leo call goes to law enforcement departments. A fire call goes to fire. An ems call goes to medical. When automatic assignment picks a unit, it picks from the departments that serve that call, and it uses position reports to find the nearest one. A medical call with four police units and one ambulance online goes to the ambulance, not to whoever is closest.

Communities that run fire and EMS as an afterthought are the ones where those departments never get a call. Routing by service is most of the fix, and the fire and EMS guide covers the rest.

The Civilian Side Can Call Too

Not every emergency starts in a car. A civilian player at their desk, or one running a character who is not in the game right now, can submit the same call from the web.

The civilian portal has an emergency call page: pick the caller, the type, the location, and what is happening, and submit. The call reaches DISPATCH with the civilian's name and phone number attached, which the in-game command cannot do, because it does not know who the player is. A two-minute wait applies between calls from the same account.

The two routes end in the same queue. Dispatch does not need to know which one a call came from.

When Nobody Is Dispatching

This is the part most emergency call scripts skip. The call is created. Now what?

On most servers, on most nights, nobody is in the dispatch seat. A call that waits for a human to assign it waits forever. PlateNet handles this two ways, and both are on by default.

Self dispatch: any on-duty unit sees the open queue in the tablet and attaches to a call. The call shows that unit as primary, and the next officer to look sees it is taken.

Automatic assignment: when it is enabled for the community, the CAD ranks available units by department, status, and distance, and assigns the call. With the radio bridge running, it also reads the assignment on the air. The automatic dispatch guide explains the ranking.

Either way, the robbery on Route 68 has an owner within a minute, and the owner is written down.

/panic Is Not /911

The resource adds a second command, and it is worth telling your players the difference before someone learns it the hard way.

/panic is Signal 100. It is for units, not callers. It needs a paired tablet, and it creates a priority-zero call at the unit's position that every open dispatch board and patrol page reacts to. Since the 5.36 release, a Signal 100 plays a tone on every DISPATCH screen and every patrol tablet in the community the moment it appears, so nobody misses it for being in another tab. The unit that raised it stays attached to it.

One a minute per unit by default. The Signal 100 reference covers what dispatch sees and how the call is cleared.

A civilian who types /panic gets nothing, because they have no unit to panic from. They want /911.

Tuning the Commands

Everything is in config.lua.

Config.Commands names all three commands. Rename the emergency command if your community uses a different number. Set panic or emergency to false to remove the command entirely, which some communities do for events where they want all calls to come through a dispatcher.

Config.EmergencyCooldownSeconds is the five-minute wait between a player's calls. Config.PanicCooldownSeconds is the one-minute wait on Signal 100. Both are seconds, and both apply per player.

The tablet commands reference lists every setting with its default.

What to Tell Your Players

Keep it to four lines and pin it.

Type /911, then leo, fire, or ems, then what is happening. Your location is attached for you. Stay where you are unless staying is dangerous. You can call again in five minutes.

Officers get one more line: /panic is for you, and only when you mean it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the /911 command need the player to have a PlateNet account?

No. Any player on the server can use it, paired or not. The call carries their in-game position and their description. A civilian who submits a call from the web portal instead gets their character's name and phone attached, because that route knows who they are.

Where does the call go if no dispatcher is online?

Into the open queue on every on-duty unit's tablet, where any unit can attach to it. If automatic assignment is on, the CAD assigns it to the nearest unit from a department that serves that type of call, and announces it on the radio if the bridge is running.

Can I change /911 to a different number?

Yes. Config.Commands in config.lua sets the command name. Communities outside the United States often set it to 999, 112, or 000. The service words stay the same.

What is the difference between /911 and /panic?

/911 is a caller reporting an emergency and can be used by anyone. /panic is Signal 100, a unit in trouble, and needs a paired tablet. A Signal 100 is priority zero, plays a tone on every dispatch and patrol screen, and keeps the unit that raised it attached.

Can a player spam calls?

One call per player every five minutes by default. The limit is Config.EmergencyCooldownSeconds. The web portal has its own two-minute wait per account.

Does the call show up on a map?

No. The call carries the street and area as text, the same way unit positions appear on the dispatch roster as a line of text. PlateNet does not draw a map, and the call routing does not need one.