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Panic button

An on-duty officer’s distress alert — from the MDT, the tablet or the game — with an urgent call, banner, alarm and point on the map.

On this page06
  1. Triggering an alert
  2. What an alert triggers
  3. An alert’s life cycle
  4. Against abuse
  5. Settings
  6. Permissions

The panic button lets an on-duty officer warn their whole service that they are in danger, in one move. The alert creates (or raises) an urgent call, rings an alarm for dispatch and for on-duty officers, and puts a red point on the live map.

A distress alert: the banner at the top of the screen

Triggering an alert

Section titled “Triggering an alert”

In the MDT and the tablet

Section titled “In the MDT and the tablet”

The panic button is a siren icon in the top bar, right before the duty timer, next to the bell and search (on a phone, in the compact top bar). At rest it has the same color as its neighbors; it turns red on hover or when focused. Its name is “Trigger the panic alert”; on hover, a tip reminds you “Panic button: hold to send a distress alert”.

Hold it for about 1.2 seconds (or keep Space or Enter pressed on the keyboard): a red ring fills around the icon, and the alert goes out when it is complete. Letting go before the end cancels. There is no confirmation window, and a simple click triggers nothing.

The panic button in the top bar

The button only shows when all three conditions are met:

  • you are on duty;
  • your rank has Panic button › Trigger;
  • the panic button is enabled in your service (see Settings).

During the minimum delay between two alerts, the button is disabled and says “New alert possible in N s”. While your alert is ongoing, the icon stays red with a small red dot in the corner, and a banner confirms “Your distress alert has been sent”. Once the alert is taken in charge, the banner switches to Taken in charge, with “Taken in charge by” and the person’s name.

The in-game tablet shows the same button, in the same place.

In game

Section titled “In game”

Without opening the tablet, an officer can also type the /panique command or use a key (F10 by default on QBCore and Qbox, none by default on ESX where F10 is taken; each player can pick or change it in Settings › Key Bindings › FiveM). The bridge then sends their character’s position. See Duty and positions for the command, the key, the bridge settings and the messages players get. The command and the key can be turned off separately, by the game server or by the service (see Settings).

What an alert triggers

Section titled “What an alert triggers”

The urgent call

Section titled “The urgent call”
  • If the officer’s unit is not assigned to any open call, a new Urgent call is created: nature “Officer in distress”, location at the alert’s position, and the officer’s unit is assigned to it.
  • If their unit is already assigned to an open call, the alert attaches to that call, which becomes Urgent.
  • With no known position (an alert from the MDT outside the game, for example), the location is “Unknown position”. As soon as the live map gets a position for the officer, it is copied once onto the call, and the log records “The system located the officer in distress”.
  • The unit switches to the service’s Emergency category status, if it has one (10-99 in the police pack; see Unit statuses).
  • In the queue, the call carries the Distress tag.

The alert banner

Section titled “The alert banner”

For dispatch, for every on-duty member of the service and for those who can acknowledge the alert, a banner shows at the top of the screen, on every MDT page: solid red background, pulsing red dot, “X in distress”, the service, badge number and unit, the sector (see Patrol sectors) or the location, the time and the origin (MDT, tablet or in game).

  • Call #N opens the call page.
  • Acknowledge takes the alert in charge.
  • Close the alert: hold the button down.
  • Mute the alarm mutes the sound on your side, for this alert only.

Beyond two detailed alerts, the banner sums up the others: “+N other alerts”. An alert taken in charge collapses into one line; expand it to act.

Alarm, bell and map

Section titled “Alarm, bell and map”
  • Alarm sound: two tones, repeated until the alert is taken in charge (if the service turned it on). Everyone mutes it on their side.
  • Notification in the bell: “Distress: X (unit) triggered the panic button (service), location.”
  • Live map: a pulsing red point at the alert’s position, and the officer’s point marked in red.

In game, for colleagues

Section titled “In game, for colleagues”

On-duty officers of the service also see the alert in the game: flashing red notification with distance and direction, red card at the top of the quick dispatch, an alert sound they can mute, a flashing point and GPS route on the game map. Everything goes away when the alert is acknowledged or closed. See Duty and positions.

An alert’s life cycle

Section titled “An alert’s life cycle”
  1. Alert in progress: the alert was just triggered, the alarm rings.
  2. Taken in charge: someone clicked Acknowledge. The alarm stops and the banner collapses.
  3. Closed: someone closed the alert (hold Close the alert). Closing the call also closes its alerts still open.

On the call page, the Distress alert section shows the alert’s state and offers the same actions as the banner.

A distress call page and its “Distress alert” section

The call log keeps each step: “triggered the panic button”, “took charge of the distress alert”, “closed the distress alert”, “located the officer in distress”. The audit log records panic.trigger, panic.acknowledge and panic.close.

Against abuse

Section titled “Against abuse”
  • One open alert per officer at a time.
  • A minimum delay between two alerts from the same officer, set per service (60 seconds suggested).
  • In game, on top of that, a per-player rate on the bridge side, and a capped rate for the whole organization.
  • An officer can’t close their own alert: a colleague with the right to, or an administrator, does it.

Settings

Section titled “Settings”

In Settings › Operations, the Panic button card is set service by service. Changing it needs Dispatch › Configure dispatch (command by default); without it, the card is read-only and locked.

Settings › Operations › Panic button
  • Panic button enabled: without it, the button doesn’t show in this service, and alerts from the game are refused.
  • Alarm sound: the alarm that rings until the alert is taken in charge.
  • Who acknowledges and closes an alert: The “Panic button › Acknowledge an alert” permission, or Also any on-duty officer of the service.
  • Minimum delay between two alerts from one officer: in seconds. Suggested: 60 s; from 10 to 600 s.
  • In-game command and In-game key (with game integration): turn off the /panique command, or the key, for this service. A player who uses them is told their service turned them off; the MDT and tablet button remains.

Each change goes to the audit log (panic.settings), with the old and new value.

Permissions

Section titled “Permissions”
Permission What it allows Default
Panic button › Trigger send a distress alert (MDT, tablet, in-game key or command), while on duty every rank
Panic button › Acknowledge an alert take in charge then close a colleague’s distress alert supervisors and up
Dispatch › Configure dispatch set up the service’s panic button command

These permissions belong to the Dispatch module. See Permissions for the full catalogue.