Calls

Each service with the Calls module (Operations group) has its own call queue: open calls, sorted by priority then age, and their History. A call starts pending, gets units, becomes “in progress” when a unit arrives on scene, then closes.

Screenshot coming soonops-calls

A service’s active queue

The queue

Two tabs: Active queue and History (closed calls). Each row gives the number (#12), priority, nature, location, time since it opened (under the clock: “21 min ago”, “1 d 3 h ago”, never a time of day) and assigned units, as badges with their callsign (three at most, then “+N”). The queue updates live; the list is paginated (Show more) and says how many calls are shown. A call born from a distress alert carries the Distress tag.

The home page shows the first five calls of the current service’s queue (Recent calls), with a link to dispatch or the queue.

Search and filters

Above the list, the search bar and the filters work on the whole queue (or the whole history), not only on what is shown:

• Search: the number (12 or #12), nature, location or caller;
• Priority: All priorities or one of the four;
• Status (active queue): Pending, Assigned or In progress;
• Period (history): Today, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, counted in your organization’s time zone, from the closing date;
• Assigned unit: calls where a unit with that callsign was assigned, even if it was unassigned since;
• Service: if you can read the calls of several services, the picker at the top of the page switches queues.

Clear filters goes back to the full list. Results stay paginated (Show more).

Screenshot coming soonops-calls-filters

History filtered by period and unit

Creating a call

1. Click New call.
2. Optional: Start from a template pre-fills the call (see Call templates).
3. Pick the Priority: Urgent, High, Normal or Low.
4. Give the Call nature: a Call type from the service’s reference list, or Free text.
5. Fill in the Location (see below).
6. Optional: Who is calling? (a Free name or a Citizen from the file), their Phone and a Description.
7. Click Create call.

Screenshot coming soonops-call-new

A new call

Location and perimeter

The Location field takes a written address (Address or description), a point placed on the San Andreas map, or both. Tap the map to place the point, drag it to adjust. If the call is vague (“shots fired somewhere around Davis”), Add a perimeter draws an adjustable circle around the point: the area to search. You never type coordinates by hand.

A call with a point shows on the dispatch map and on the live map. With the game integration, the members of the assigned units get its marker and route in their in-game GPS (see Call waypoints).

Call types

By default, the nature is typed freely. An administrator, or a rank with Dispatch › Choose call types, can link a reference list to the service in Settings › Operations › Call types: the nature is then picked from that list (free text stays possible). Free text only goes back to the default.

Call templates

A call template pre-fills a common call (traffic stop, robbery, unconscious person…): pick it at the top of the form, in Start from a template. The template fills in the priority, nature, description and caller; everything stays editable before creating the call. The call page keeps the template’s name (“Template: Traffic stop”) and its Standard notes are added to the log as soon as the call is created.

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“Start from a template” in the new call form

Templates are set service by service in Settings › Operations, Call templates card (Dispatch › Configure dispatch permission, command by default):

Screenshot coming soonsettings-call-templates

Settings › Operations › Call templates

• New template: Template name, priority, nature (a call type from the service’s reference list or text), description, Pre-filled caller and Standard notes (instructions, things to check). Thirty templates at most per service.
• Add the suggested templates (offered while the service has no template) lays down a starter pack fitted to the kind of service, in the organization’s language: for police, Shots fired, Robbery, Burglary, Traffic stop and Noise complaint; for medical, Unconscious person, Traffic accident, Injury and Transfer; otherwise, Assistance request and Information.
• A row’s Edit the template … button reopens the template; everything can be changed.
• Remove (in the open template, hold the button down): the template moves to Settings › Archives, type Call templates, where it can be restored (see Archives).

Each creation, edit or removal goes to the audit log, with the old and new value.

The call page

Screenshot coming soonops-call-sheet

A call page

• Status: Pending (no unit), Assigned (at least one unit), In progress (a unit is on scene), Closed. The status follows the units on its own; you can also set it by hand (between Assigned and In progress), like the Priority, right in the page header (with Calls › Edit a call).
• Assigned units: Assign a unit of the service (twelve at most per call, with Calls › Assign units), Assign me for your unit (with Calls › Edit a call), or unassign a unit. An assigned unit leaves its previous call. If your unit is assigned, Change status updates its status from the page, with its detail.
• Edit: nature, location, caller, description, priority.
• Sector: if the call has a point on the map (or a perimeter: its center), the page shows the patrol sector it is in, or “Outside any sector”.
• Distress alert: on a call born from a panic button, this section shows the alert’s state and lets you acknowledge or close it.
• Game alert: on a call created by a game alert, this section gives the alert type, the number of reports and their origin.
• Linked report: Link a report links the call to an operation report by its number or title (with Calls › Edit a call or Calls › Assign units); Unlink removes it.
• Export, to the right of the title: the call and its log as a PDF or an image (see PDF and image export).

Set the waypoint in game

On an open call that has a point, with the game integration, the Set waypoint button, next to the location, sets the call’s marker and route in your in-game GPS, for you only, without assigning you. Being able to read the call is enough.

Screenshot coming soonops-call-waypoint

“Set waypoint” on a call page

• In the in-game tablet, the tablet sets the point right away. “Waypoint of call #12 set in your in-game GPS.” only shows if the game really created the marker; otherwise: “The waypoint could not be set in game.”
• From the website, the request goes to your character in game: “Waypoint of call #12 sent to the game: it shows in your GPS within seconds.” If it isn’t in game: “Your character isn’t in game: join the server with an account linked to the MDT.”

If the point doesn’t show, see Troubleshooting the waypoint.

The most recent wins: if your unit is then assigned to another call, the route follows the assignment; a new Set waypoint takes over again; unassigning removes everything. It’s a personal marker: nothing goes to the log. The same button is in dispatch and in a call’s menu on the map.

The log

The Log keeps everything that happens to the call, with author and time: creation, edits (with old and new value, for example “Location: Forum Drive → Grove Street”), priority, units assigned and unassigned, unit status changes, transfers, linked report, closing and reopening, and the steps of a distress alert. Add a Note to the log with the Add note button (with Calls › Edit a call, or if your unit is assigned to the call). The log can’t be edited.

Transferring a call

A call that concerns another service (an injured person for medical, for example) can be transferred with Transfer (Calls › Transfer a call permission): pick the target service (it must have the Calls module) and add a note if you like. The call moves to that queue: its units are released, it goes back to Pending, and its page shows “Transferred from …”. If the nature came from the old service’s reference list, only its text is kept.

Closing and reopening

Close (Calls › Close a call permission) asks for an optional Outcome (“Suspect arrested, report in progress…”). The call leaves the active queue, its units are released, and it moves to History. Reopen (Calls › Reopen a call permission) puts it back as pending in its service’s queue.

Without the permission, the button stays visible but locked, with a padlock and the help “Restricted: Calls › Close a call” (see Permissions).

Automatic closing

A forgotten call doesn’t stay in the queue forever: with no activity at all (note, edit, unit assigned or unassigned, status change of an assigned unit…) for the delay set for the service, it is closed automatically. Its outcome becomes Automatic closing, its units are released, and both the call log and the audit log record it under The system (“Automatic closing: no activity for 120 min”). A call closed automatically can be reopened like any other.

The delay is set per service in Settings › Operations › Dispatch (see Dispatch): 120 minutes by default, from 15 minutes to 24 hours, or turned off. The check runs every five minutes, so a call may close a few minutes after the delay.

911 operators

There is no separate “operator” role: an operator is a rank with the right permissions. For a call center that takes calls and dispatches units, give its rank Dispatch › See dispatch, Calls › Create a call, Calls › Edit a call, Calls › Transfer a call, Calls › Close a call and Calls › Assign units. A dedicated service (“911 Center”, Custom type) can then transfer each call to police or medical.

Note

From the game, game alerts (dispatch scripts, bridge detections, 911 phone calls, custom scripts) and the panic button also create calls. An alert call carries the Game alert icon, the number of merged reports and, in its log, each report with its origin; it is created by The system (no author).

Permissions

Permission	What it allows	Default
Calls › See calls	see the queue and history	every rank
Calls › Create a call	enter a new call in the service queue	members and up
Calls › Edit a call	edit nature, location, caller, priority and status, add notes, link a report; assign or unassign your own unit	members and up
Calls › Assign units	assign or unassign any unit of the service; link a report	supervisors and up
Calls › Transfer a call	send the call to another service’s queue	members and up
Calls › Close a call	end a call with its outcome	members and up
Calls › Reopen a call	put a closed call back in the queue	supervisors and up

Dispatch › See dispatch also gives access to the queue. Without Calls › Create a call, the New call button stays visible but locked, in the module and in dispatch; the server refuses the creation too. A member of an assigned unit can always add a note, even without Calls › Edit a call. Transfers, closings and reopenings go to the audit log. The full catalogue is in Permissions.