Dispatch

Dispatch (Operations group) brings together on one screen everything the person dispatching units needs: the service’s call queue, the map and its units, live.

Screenshot coming soonops-dispatch

The dispatch screen

The three columns

• On the left, the call queue: the service’s open calls, by priority then age, with a priority filter (All, Urgent, High, Normal, Low), a search (number, nature, location, caller) and status and assigned-unit filters (see Calls). Each call shows how long it has been open (“21 min ago”); a new call carries the New badge, a call born from a distress alert the Distress tag. New call needs Calls › Create a call: without it, the button stays visible and locked.
• In the middle, the map: on-duty members, calls that have a point on the map and, if the service has some, the patrol sectors (Show sectors / Hide sectors). It needs the Live map › See the live map permission in one of your services (see Live map); without it, the middle shows “Live map unavailable” and the number of positioned calls. Members’ positions need the game integration.
• On the right, the selected call and the units: while no call is chosen, “Pick a call”; then the chosen call’s details (status, assigned units, quick actions, Set waypoint, Open details), then the unit list with an All, Free, Assigned filter. Each unit takes three lines: callsign and crew, status and its detail, then call, vehicle and time in status. With sectors, the unit also shows “Assigned:” (its assigned sector) and “In:” (the sector it is in, from the live map). A long callsign or status is cut cleanly (the full text shows on hover) and never overlaps Assign. The unit list is bounded (Show more) and says how many units are shown.

On a narrower screen (tablet, phone), the columns become three tabs: Calls, Units, Map.

Assigning a unit

• With the mouse: drag a unit onto a call in the queue.
• With the keyboard or a finger: select the call, then click Assign on the unit’s row.

The call becomes Assigned and the unit follows it. When the unit takes an “On scene” category status, the call becomes In progress. On the page of a call your unit is assigned to, the Change status buttons update your unit without leaving the screen.

Assigning or unassigning a unit needs Calls › Assign units. Without it, a banner at the top of the screen says so (“Read-only: you need “Calls › Assign units” to assign units.”): you see everything, but units can no longer be dragged and the Units column has no Assign button. In Nearest units, Assign stays visible but locked, with the help “Restricted: Calls › Assign units”. You can always change your own unit’s status, and Assign me on a call with Calls › Edit a call.

Calls on the map

Each open call that has a point is a diamond in its priority’s color. Its ring tells whether it is covered:

• Pending (no unit): a dashed ring around the diamond;
• Handled: a solid, tinted ring, and a badge with the number of assigned units.

In the queue, a call’s assigned units show as badges (their callsign, three at most then “+N”).

Selecting a call in the queue, or clicking Open call in a game alert’s notification, centers the map on its point and zooms in smoothly, down to street level. If your system asks for reduced motion, the map goes there directly, without movement.

A call’s menu

Click a call’s point (or the red marker of a distress alert): a panel comes out of the point, like an officer’s card. It shows the priority, the number, the state (Pending or Handled), the nature, the location, how long the call has been open, the start of its description and the assigned units (their callsigns as badges, yours highlighted).

Screenshot coming soonops-dispatch-call-menu

The menu of a handled call, opened from the map

The buttons depend on your permissions:

Button	What it does	Permission
Assign me / Unassign me	assigns or unassigns your unit	Calls › Edit a call
Assign a unit	pick a unit in the list, then Assign	Calls › Assign units
Set waypoint	sets the call’s marker in your in-game GPS, without assigning you (see below)	Calls › See calls or Dispatch › See dispatch
Open details	opens the call page	Calls › See calls or Dispatch › See dispatch
Close	closes the call: hold the button down for about 1.2 seconds, release to cancel	Calls › Close a call

The panel closes with Escape, its cross, or a tap elsewhere on the map. It follows its point when you pan or zoom the map, and works with a finger on a phone. The same menu exists on the live map.

Set waypoint

Set waypoint (on the selected call’s details, in the call’s menu on the map, and on the call page) sets the call’s marker and route in your in-game GPS, for you only, without assigning your unit. It needs the game integration, an open call that has a point, and your character in game, with an account linked to the MDT. Otherwise: “Your character isn’t in game: join the server with an account linked to the MDT.” From the website, the confirmation says the point was sent to the game (it shows within seconds); in the tablet, it only shows if the game really created the marker (see Calls). It’s a personal marker: nothing goes to the log. When your unit is assigned to a call, the point is set on its own: see Call waypoints.

Nearest units

When the selected call has a point on the map (or a perimeter: its center), the Nearest units section suggests up to five available units (“Available” category status, no call), located by the live map and ranked by distance (in m or km). Each row gives the callsign, the status, the sector the unit is in (“In: Los Santos Central”) and an Assign button.

Screenshot coming soonops-dispatch-nearest

The units nearest to the selected call

Assign needs, as usual, Calls › Assign units; without it, the button stays visible but locked, with a padlock. The computation runs in your browser, from the positions the map already receives: nothing is written.

The section says so when it has nothing to suggest:

• the call has no point: “This call has no point on the map…”; set a point in its location;
• without game integration or live map, unit positions are unknown: no suggestion;
• no available unit has a recent position.

Call types

The natures offered when creating a call come from a reference list chosen in Settings › Operations › Call types. That choice needs Dispatch › Choose call types (command by default); see Calls.

Dispatch settings

In Settings › Operations, the Dispatch card sets, service by service, what dispatch does on its own. Each setting can be turned off with its switch.

Screenshot coming soonsettings-dispatch

Settings › Operations › Dispatch

• Automatic closing of calls: an open call with no activity for this long is closed, outcome Automatic closing (see Calls). Suggested: 120 minutes; 15 to 1,440 minutes.
• Last position after going off duty: when an officer goes off duty, their dot stays on the map for this long, greyed out and marked Off duty, last position at 15:01 (useful if they are taken hostage or go down while going off duty). Suggested: 15 minutes; 1 to 120 minutes. See Live map.

The same page gathers the other dispatch settings, each on its own card:

• Panic button: turn the button on, the alarm sound, who acknowledges an alert and the minimum delay between two alerts (see Panic button);
• Call templates: the pre-filled calls offered when creating a call (see Calls);
• Patrol sectors: the areas drawn on the map (see Patrol sectors); they need Sectors › Draw and edit;
• Game alerts (with the game integration, in a service that has the Calls and Dispatch modules): the alerts received from the game, their priority, report merging and the cap (see Game alerts); they need Game alerts › Configure;
• Plate reader (with the game integration, in a service that has the Vehicles module): see Plate reader.

If several of your services have these modules, the Service switcher at the top of the page picks the one you set up. A card only shows if the service has the matching module: Dispatch with Calls or Dispatch, Panic button and Patrol sectors with Dispatch, Call templates with Calls.

Changing them (except sectors, game alerts and the plate reader) needs Dispatch › Configure dispatch (command by default); without it, the card is read-only and locked. Each change goes to the audit log with the old and new value.

New call sound

The bell button at the top of the queue (“Play a sound for each new call”) plays a beep for each new call; pressed again (“Mute new call sounds”), it goes quiet. It is off by default and your choice is remembered on this device. In the in-game tablet, the beep doesn’t sound while the tablet is closed.

Game alerts

Game alerts (shots fired, robberies, vehicle thefts, 911 calls…) arrive in the queue as calls, with the Game alert icon and the counter of merged reports. For an important alert (from the priority set by the service, High by default), dispatch hears a double beep and sees an Open call notification, even when the new-call sound is off.

Quick dispatch in game

In the in-game tablet, the Quick dispatch switch in the Units column shows a small panel over the game: your service’s on-duty units (your unit first, callsign, crew, status and its detail) and quick status keys. When it is shown, the Move button, next to the switch, lets each player place it anywhere on screen. It doesn’t show the call list: next to an assigned unit’s callsign, a small circled number (“#9”) tells which call it is on. See In-game tablet.

Permissions

Permission	What it allows	Default
Dispatch › See dispatch	open the console: call queue, units and map	every rank
Dispatch › Choose call types	choose the list of call natures offered to dispatch	command
Dispatch › Configure dispatch	set automatic closing of calls, the last position after going off duty, the panic button and call templates	command
Panic button › Trigger	send a distress alert, while on duty	every rank
Panic button › Acknowledge an alert	take in charge then close a colleague’s alert	supervisors and up
Sectors › View sectors	see sectors on the map, and the sector of calls and units	every rank
Sectors › Draw and edit	draw, rename, color and delete the service’s sectors	command
Game alerts › Configure	set up the game alerts the service receives (with the game integration)	command

Dispatch also relies on the permissions of neighboring modules:

Permission	What it allows here	Default
Calls › Edit a call	Assign me and Unassign me in a call’s menu on the map	members and up
Calls › Assign units	drag a unit onto a call, assign and unassign any unit of the service, including from Nearest units and Assign a unit on the map	supervisors and up
Calls › Close a call	Close in a call’s menu on the map	members and up

| Live map › See the live map | show the map in the middle | every rank |

See Permissions for the full catalogue.

Tip

Dispatch shows one service at a time: the one in the service switcher. An administrator or a member of several services switches from the top bar.