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Community administration

Departments

Departments decide call routing, which report forms members get and which access codes can be issued.

Departments decide which units a call can reach, which report forms a member gets and which access codes can be issued.

Adding one

Expand + ADD DEPARTMENT under the table.

  1. Code, such as BCSO.
  2. Tag, such as SHERIFF. This appears on unit rosters, call routing lines and report headers.
  3. Display name, such as Blaine County Sheriff's Office.
  4. Service, from Fire / EMS, State law enforcement, Sheriff / county, Police / city or Other / custom.
  5. Display order, a number that sets position in lists.

Codes and tags appear in uppercase and may contain letters, numbers, underscores and dashes.

Service type

It decides which report forms members of that department get. Fire / EMS gives the fire and EMS set. Every other service type gives the law enforcement set. See report types and forms.

It also decides which calls the department is considered for during automatic routing. A call classified as law enforcement considers departments set to Police, Sheriff or State. A call classified as fire or medical considers departments set to Fire / EMS.

A department set to Other / custom receives calls that name it explicitly, and calls that fall through to the default.

The default department

The DEFAULT control sits in the panel header. Select a department and press SAVE.

The default receives calls that could not be classified from their type and description. It also resolves ties, so a call classifying as law enforcement in a community with three law enforcement departments goes to the default.

Without a default, a call that does not classify has no department, and automatic assignment has no units to draw from.

Enabling and disabling

DISABLE takes a department out of use without deleting it. A disabled department shows an amber DISABLED badge and stops being offered for routing, for new access codes and as the default.

Existing members keep their department assignment.

Deleting

DELETE asks "Delete this department and its access codes?"

Every access code tied to that department is deleted. Members whose department was that one are left with no department. Calls routed to it lose their routing.

Members left with no department fall back to the law enforcement report set and stop receiving automatically routed work. Assigning them elsewhere is done in the users panel.

Editing

EDIT opens the row in place.

Changing the tag changes it everywhere it appears, including on existing calls and rosters. Changing the service type of a department with members changes which report forms those members get.

Related pages

  • Community administrationThe Community Panel holds departments, access codes and users, and is where a new community is set up.
  • Access codesAccess codes are how people join your community and how they receive patrol, supervisor, dispatcher, management or civilian access.
  • Community users and permissionsThe users grid sets patrol, dispatch, management and supervisor access per member, scoped by department, and is where access is revoked.
  • Call routing and requirementsThe routing editor sets which department owns a call, requests a specific subdivision, and marks a call as needing a supervisor.
  • Automatic assignmentAutomatic assignment assigns available units to open calls, processes calls by priority, and can be overridden for a dispatcher session.
  • Report types and formsThe ten law enforcement forms and eleven fire and EMS forms, what each adds to the document, and how your department decides which set you get.

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