Dispatch Console¶

The Dispatch Console (/dispatch) is mission control for your community: a live picture of all calls and on-duty units, a real-time map, 911 call-taking, and all the tools needed to create, assign, and close calls. Open it from your dispatch department's row under Go on duty on your community home, with the Go in service button.

The console is a Windows-style CAD terminal. Everything updates in real time over the live connection, and multiple dispatchers can work the same board at once (each on their own saved layout).

Going in-service¶

Opening the console shows a Dispatcher Login gate. The first time, set your Title (pick a suggestion such as Dispatcher, Call Taker or Senior Dispatcher, or type your own) and Name (e.g. M. Carter). It is remembered after that. Other consoles show you as your operator ID with your name beside it, e.g. SADEOW001 · CARTER, M..

Press Go In-Service and you sign on in Standby:

Status	Colour	What it means
Standby	Red	Signed on and view only. You see the whole board, map, calls and the 911 queue, but you can't answer 911s, dispatch, or change units. You don't count as dispatch yet: 911s still become pending calls, stations are still paged automatically, and MDTs still read NO DISPATCH. A red banner at the bottom of the console says so, and anything you try that Standby blocks tells you which action was refused and to press Go Available.
Available	Green	Press Go Available when you're ready. You're live: 911s ring on your console and MDTs read DISPATCH ONLINE.
Busy	Yellow	Automatic while a 911 you answered is still open, and back to Available when you dispatch it, merge it or hang it up. If you're Busy with nothing to do, look in the 911 queue (`F2`) for a call still marked answered by you. You can also press Busy yourself (a landline, radio traffic). If all live dispatchers are busy, MDTs read DISPATCH BUSY.

Your status pill and its buttons sit at the left of the command bar. Standby takes you back to view-only without leaving.

This is what routes 911 calls to a live call-taking panel: with no dispatcher Available or Busy on the server, in-game 911 calls fall through to pending incidents on the board instead of ringing a call-taker.
Auto log-off, the same as the MDTs: you're taken out of service after 5 minutes with the console closed (a page refresh keeps your shift), or after 30 minutes in Standby without going Available.
On a multi-server community you only take that server's 911 calls, units, and tones.

Dispatcher badge IDs

Dispatcher actions (answering, dispatching, comments) are attributed to your dispatcher badge ID (e.g. SADEOW001). Your title and name show beside it on the dispatcher lists.

Coverage & dispatch zones¶

Admins define dispatch zones (e.g. North, County-Wide, State-Wide) in Admin. Coverage lives on your in-service dispatcher session, so any in-service dispatcher can click Coverage in the command bar to pick the zone(s) they're covering (it isn't gated to a Dispatch-typed unit). Chat and calls can then be addressed to a zone code, and your coverage shows to other operators on the Dispatchers panel (F10).

Console layout¶

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ PulseCAD CAD - Dispatch Console                                  ▢  ✕   │  ← title bar
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ [New Call][Closed Calls][Recordings][Edit Board][Unlocked][Board][911]…  │  ← tile toolbar
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ AVAILABLE Standby Busy · Operator … · Coverage …   Console look · Sound … │  ← strip
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                          (board or active view)                          │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ CMD> ______________   1864 ER 027 · 1864 OS · CLR 027 ARR …   19:15:45   │  ← command bar
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

ALL CAPS entry

All text fields on the dispatch console type in ALL CAPS automatically, the way a real CAD terminal works. You don't need to hold shift.

Console look¶

The Console look picker at the top of the console switches this console between two layouts. Your choice is saved to your account, so it follows you to any browser, the station machine and the desktop app, and it is still there the next time you sign in. It is yours alone: it changes nothing for the other dispatchers on shift, and nothing at all for the officers in the field.

Look	What it is
PulseSquare	The board described on this page: a toolbar of icon tiles, and panels you drag, resize and arrange on a canvas. This is the default.
PulseMin	A Windows-console layout. Calls, pending calls and units are stacked black status grids that are always on screen, with a named-action bar of dispatch verbs above them, the command line under that (its Help button lists all command forms), and a status bar below.

Everything works the same in both: the same calls, the same units, the same commands, the same permissions. Only the arrangement changes.

A few things are deliberately different in the PulseMin look, because a stacked console and a free canvas do not want the same board:

The map is off by default. In a stack it takes a band of height away from the three grids you actually work. It is still one key away (F4, or the Map tile), and you can put it back on the board from Edit Board → Add Panel.
Panel sets are per look. Adding or removing a panel in PulseMin does not disturb the board you arranged in PulseSquare, and the layout presets are tuned for a stack rather than a canvas.
Drag the dividers between Active Calls, Pending Calls and Units to give any of them more height. The setting is remembered per terminal.
The toolbar is twelve tiles in F-key order: CAD Screen (F1), 911 Queue (F2), Add CAD Call (F3), Map (F4), Search (F5), IM (F6), BOLOs (F7), Roads (F8), CAD Log (F9), Dispatchers (F10), then Query Hits and Recordings. Closed Calls is in the File menu, and Unit Cams, Radio and Tone Board (where your community has them) are in the View menu. The console look picker is the Look menu.
The action bar is call actions only, in one row: Dispatch, Nearest Avail, Remove Unit, Make Primary Unit, Enroute All, On Scene All, Code 4 All, Edit Call, 2^nd Loc, Transport, Merge, Scene Timer, Case #, Return to Pending, Complete Call, and Signal 100 at the right. It acts on the selected call (and unit). Click a selected row again to deselect it.
Unit actions sit on the Units caption: Status Check, OOS and Call Unit act on the selected unit, and Log On Unit puts a unit that is not signed in on the board. They are also in the Units menu.
Your dispatch status (Available, Busy, Standby) is the dropdown at the left of the command bar.
Add CAD Call (F3) and CAD Call Information open as pages in the board area, not pop-ups. Double-click a call for its full Call Information page; Back to Board returns.
The side column: with a call or unit selected it shows that record. With nothing selected it can show a panel you choose instead (Map, 911 Queue, Unit Cams, Search, IM, BOLOs, Roads, CAD Log, Dispatchers, and Tone Board or Radio where you have them). Pick it from the Side column dropdown on the empty record or in Edit Board; it is saved with the terminal. Close on a record takes you back to it.
BOLOs (F7) are a grid with the selected BOLO's record beside it, where you edit or clear it. New BOLO opens a blank record in the same place.
IM (F6) has a To: line. Type a callsign, a name, an agency or a call number and press Enter; each becomes a tag, so one message can go to just 2814 and 412, to everyone on duty in an agency, or to the units on a call. Conversations are listed on the left, and replies from anyone in a conversation land in it. Choosing All Units sends a broadcast.
Close the CAD CALL INFORMATION panel with its Close button and the grids take the full width. It opens again as soon as you select a call or unit.
Removing a pane is an Edit Board job: the close mark on a pane's caption only appears while Edit Board is on, so a stray click mid-shift cannot take a grid away.
Colour is the state. Rows are inked in your community's own status colours: a unit by its status, a call by its primary unit's status, and a call nobody is on by your Pending colour (cyan if you have not set one). A P1 or P2 call has its priority cell filled.
A call left waiting turns red. A pending call's Time cell goes red once it has waited 5 minutes for a unit, counted from when it last became unassigned. Hover it for the reason.

On PulseSquare all actions and views are tiles on one toolbar, with its function key in the corner. The open view's tile is outlined in yellow, and 911, Messages and Hits turn red with a count when something is waiting.

Button	Key	What it does
New Call	`F3`	Open the New Incident form (create a call from scratch)
Closed Calls		Find a closed call and reopen it
Recordings		Browse all 911 voice recordings for the community (Pulse Pro and up)
Edit Board		Toggle layout editing: drag/resize/add/remove board panels
Locked / Unlocked		Lock the board so panels are not moved or resized by accident
Sound		The console's audio alerts (new call, priority, panic, ring)
Signal 100 / Clear Broadcast		Raise (or clear) a station-wide emergency-traffic broadcast
Out of Service		Leave the console and go out of service

Sound, Signal 100, Out of Service and the Console look picker sit on the strip under the tiles, beside your dispatcher status, operator and coverage. The command bar runs along the bottom of the console, with example commands, the result of the last one, and a large clock with the date.

View tabs¶

Tab	Key	Shows
Board	`F1`	On-duty units and active/pending calls, side by side (the default)
911	`F2`	The incoming-911 queue (ringing + being-worked calls)
Map	`F4`	All on-duty units on the live GTA-V map + active-call pins
Unit Cams		Grid of on-duty units; click one to view its latest body-cam frame (the body-cam plugin is Pulse Pro and up)
BOLOs	`F7`	Be-on-the-lookout entries (person / vehicle / general). A BOLO still active after 30 days clears itself.
Roads & Signs	`F8`	The combined DOT board: active road events plus in-game roadway smart signs (when configured)
Lookup	`F5`	Records lookup: plate, person, boat, gun, address and incident queries
Hits		Officers' query returns that came back with a hit
CAD Log	`F9`	A running community activity log
Messages	`F6`	Dispatch ↔ unit messaging
Dispatchers	`F10`	Presence panel of all in-service dispatchers and the coverage they hold

The command bar¶

The CMD> line is a fast, radio-style way to update units and calls without touching the mouse. It's lenient about spacing, casing, and abbreviations. The general shape is:

<callsign> <action> [call#]

Press Enter to run. Type HELP (or ?) for an inline reminder.

Create a call¶

The command bar does more than update units: it can create a whole incident from one order-independent line of natural language. Type a callsign, a call type, an address, and any vehicle/plate details in any order and it assembles the call for you:

1864 traffic senora rd black bmw NKP305

That line creates a TRAFFIC STOP incident, attaches unit 1864, puts the address and vehicle description on the call, and auto-runs the plate NKP305 (attaching the return to the call log). The parser is deterministic: it recognizes call types, street names, colors/makes, and plate patterns regardless of the order you type them. So the command bar isn't limited to status/clear/attach/note; it's a full call-creation shortcut.

Call numbers on the command line¶

Type a call by the daily number the board shows: 027 or just 27. The full incident number (26000027) also works, and is the way to reach a call from an earlier day when two open calls share a daily number. The number has to match exactly; a few trailing digits never find a call.

The command line never acts on the wrong call. A number is only read as a call number when it sits where a call number goes (shown in each form below), and a number that names no open call is refused with No open call 270 rather than applied to the unit's current call. Two open calls with the same daily number are refused too, with a prompt to use the full number.

Set a status¶

2814 ENROUTE 027      → adds 2814 to call 027 (if not already), sets ENROUTE
2814 027 ER           → the same; the call # may sit before the status
2814 ON SCENE         → marks 2814 ON SCENE (must already be on a call)
2814 2820 ER 027      → attaches both units to 027 and sets both ENROUTE
2814 AVAIL            → clears 2814 back to available

If you include a call number, the unit is attached to that call first (as an active dispatch), then the status is set. It goes right after the status, right after the callsign, or right before the status. Several callsigns in one line attach and set all of them. Scene/enroute-type statuses require the unit to be on a call; if it isn't and you didn't give a call#, the bar tells you to add one. A status with no callsign is answered with Which unit?.

Clear / close a call¶

CLR 027 ARR           → closes call 027 with disposition ARR
2814 CLEAR INFO       → closes the unit's call with disposition INFO
2814 CLEAR            → closes it with no disposition

After CLEAR (or CLR) the call # goes right after the verb. Anything else on the line is the disposition. If a number later in the line names the unit's own call it is used; if it names a different open call, the command is refused with a hint showing where the number goes, for example 2814 is on 031. To clear 027, type CLR 027 ARR.

Attach, dispatch, detach¶

2814 ATTACH 027       → attach 2814 to 027 (ASSIGN / ADD also work)
2814 DISPATCH 027     → attach 2814 to 027 AND set ENROUTE (DISP / SEND also work)
2814 DETACH           → remove 2814 from its call (call stays open)

The same placement rule applies: the call # goes right after the verb.

Add a note¶

2814 SUSPECT IN CUSTODY     → adds a comment (tagged with the callsign) to the unit's call
2814 NOTE 027 SUSPECT FLED  → note onto call 027
2814 NOTE 3 OCCUPANTS       → no call 3 is open, so "3" stays in the note
2814 #031 SUSPECT FLED      → a plain note sent to call 031

In a plain note (no verb, status or call type) a bare number is always note text, so 2814 suspect has 2 guns goes on the unit's own call. To send a plain note to another call, mark the number with # (#031) or type the full incident number.

Leniency & guardrails¶

Callsign matches whatever the case and punctuation: 1A2, 1a2 and 1A-2 are the same unit.
Aliases only resolve to statuses your community actually has configured.
If a unit is already on a different call, the bar tells you to clear that one first instead of failing silently.
Map bookmarks: .1. saves the current map view in slot 1, .1 jumps back to it (slots 0-9).

Status abbreviations¶

Statuses are matched by their code, label, short label, or any of these aliases (spaces, dashes, slashes, and dots are ignored, so ON SCENE, O/S, os, and 10-97 all work):

Status	Accepts
Available	`AVAIL` `AVAILABLE` `AVL` `AV` `IN SERVICE` `IS` `FREE` `READY` `10-8` `8`
Enroute	`ENROUTE` `ENRT` `ENR` `ER` `E/R` `RESP` `RESPONDING` `OMW` `10-76` `76`
On Scene	`SCENE` `ON SCENE` `OS` `O/S` `ARR` `ARRIVED` `10-97` `97` `10-23` `23`
OK / Code 4	`OK` `CODE 4` `C4` `10-4`
Unable / Busy	`UT` `UNABLE` `BUSY` `10-6`
Advised	`AD` `ADVISED`
Out of Service	`OOS` `OUT OF SERVICE` `10-7` `7`
Transport (Fire/EMS/Tow)	`TRANS` `TRANSPORT` `TRANSPORTING` `10-15`
In Tow (Tow)	`TOW` `INTOW` `TOWING`
At Hospital (Fire/EMS)	`HOSP` `HOSPITAL`
Staging	`STAGE` `STAGING` `STAGED`

Records lookup¶

The Lookup tab (F5) runs the same records queries an officer runs, and returns the same PULSECAD QUERY RETURN teletype document:

Mode	Returns
Plate	Registration, owner, stolen / expired-reg / no-insurance / BOLO / owner-warrant flags
Person	Identity, licence + status, warrants, criminal history, contacts history. The date of birth is optional: with it the search narrows to one person, without it you get everyone with that name. Type it as MM/DD/YYYY or just the digits (`04151989`). With a DOB, a flagged record that shares the name, or the DOB and a first or last name, is added to the lookup history as a separate POSSIBLE MATCH return
Boat / Gun	Watercraft or firearm registration → owner + flags
Address	All CAD calls at a street or postal
Incident	Look up an incident by number, case # or date

Dispatch returns include contacts history and criminal history by default; you do not have to ask for them.
A query is not instant. The console holds the run for a few seconds, exactly like the field terminals, and the button reads Running… until the return lands.
Associated incidents render as a table under the return; click a row to pull that incident up as its own CAD INCIDENT return, activity log included. Closed incidents open the same way, and Open on Board appears on the return when the incident is still open.
The form clears after each run (Person puts the cursor back in Last Name), so you can type the next one straight in. The return stays on screen and in Recent Returns.
Attach to Call posts the return into an incident's log.
Enter as Stolen / Clear Stolen Entry make the records entry from the console, which is where NCIC-style entry usually happens. See MDT.
Recent returns keeps this session's lookups so you can revisit and attach one later.

The board¶

The default Board view is two panels: Units and Incidents (active + pending), plus an incident detail panel when you select a call.

Units panel¶

Units are grouped by department. On PulseSquare each row reads Unit, Status (a dropdown to change it inline), Time on that status, CFS # (the call it is on, with an unassign mark, or a picker to assign one) and Location, and the whole row is filled in the unit's status colour. Notable indicators:

A DC unit (its game session dropped, within the disconnect grace period) keeps its status colour under dark diagonal stripes, with a brown left edge and a DC badge.
A stale unit (held a status too long with no change) keeps its status colour too: its Time cell turns amber and the row's top and bottom edges pulse amber.
A unit in PANIC is a solid red flashing row, whatever its status, and that wins over stale and DC.
A status-check button appears when a unit has held a status too long with no change; click it to ping their MDT. Once the officer checks in, right-click the unit and pick Reset status timer to clear the warning. It comes back after another full window if the status still hasn't changed. The unit's time-on-status clock is not changed. In-service dispatchers and supervisors can reset it; officers can't reset their own.
All in-service dispatchers have the same unit controls: changing a unit's status, editing it, clearing a panic, and Log off duty. Your community role (member, supervisor, admin) doesn't change what you can do to units on the board; being in service does.
A PANIC clear button appears on a unit in distress.
A call number from an earlier day reads prev day beside it (for example 039 prev day), here and everywhere the board shows a call number. The daily numbers restart at midnight in your community's time zone, set under Admin → General Settings → Community time zone (UTC until someone picks one).
Unassign removes a unit from the call it's on.
A callsign ending in * (for example 5330*) is a unit dispatch logged on for an officer who isn't signed in. See Logging on a unit.

Logging on a unit¶

For an officer who is working but not signed in to the CAD ("5330, show me out with 2814"), dispatch can put them on the board:

Press Log On in the Units panel header (in the PulseMin look, Log On Unit on the Units caption), or right-click an incident and pick Log on unit to this call.
Enter the callsign. The department is guessed from the callsign prefix; change it if needed.
Pick the call to put them on (optional) and their status, then press Log On.

The unit shows as 5330* on the board, on incident rows and on other officers' MDTs. No CAD account is needed. Dispatch works it like any other unit: attach it to calls, set its status, and log it off from its right-click menu when they clear. It stays on the board until dispatch logs it off, even after its call closes, as long as someone is dispatching: once its server has had no dispatcher for 15 minutes (or nothing has touched it for 12 hours) it is logged off automatically, and a call it was the only unit on goes back to pending. An officer who goes on duty as that callsign, from the web, the game or Discord, takes the unit over with its call and status. It has no map position and no MDT, so it has no phone or status-check button.

When the officer signs in and goes on duty with that same callsign, they take the unit over. They stay on the same call with the same status, the asterisk drops, and the call opens on their MDT.

Any in-service dispatcher can log units on, change their status and log them off.

Combining units¶

When officers ride together ("2814, show me with 2820 as UNION 1"), combine their units so the board shows one car:

Right-click the driver's unit and pick Combine units….
Pick the unit to combine with (same department only) and, optionally, a new callsign for the car.
Press Combine. The officers are not asked; both MDTs tell them they are now one unit.

The second unit drops off the board and the car shows +1 next to its callsign; its Unit Details list everyone riding in it. Assign, status and clear the car like any unit. To split it, right-click the car and pick Split unit: everyone goes back to their own callsign. Officers can also do this themselves from their MDT (Ride along).

Incidents panel¶

Active and pending calls, one line each. On PulseSquare an Active row reads P (priority, P1 highest, shown in its colour), # (the daily call number), Problem, Units (a chip per unit in its status colour, primary outlined), Dept, Location, the scene timer (when an officer-safety welfare timer is running; it turns to a warning when it expires) and the call's Age. Pending rows read P, #, Type, Dept, Location and Age.

On a call with linked incidents, Dept shows a short badge per agency: PD, FD and TOW, each with its count or PEND while that agency has nobody on it yet. Hover a badge for the agency's full name.
Age (and all Time cells on the board, in both looks) reads H:MM:SS for the first ten hours, then hours and minutes (23h20m), then days and hours past a day (1d 01h). Hover it for the exact time.

Selecting a call opens the detail panel with three tabs:

Comments: the numbered call log: notes, 911 and ERS intake, and events on the incident itself (closed, reopened, returned to pending, merged, caller or primary unit changed, status check sent) as [NOTIFICATION] lines naming the incident and who did it. Everything is in capitals. Unit movement (attached, enroute, on scene, Code 4, cleared) is not written here; it is kept in each unit's incident times. Add a comment inline (with Correct Text, below). The folded 911 transcript appears here as a system entry. On an event with linked incidents, this is the whole event's log, and Send to picks which agency gets your note.
Units: attached units, the primary, ACK/UNACK state, and a one-click Dispatch nearest available unit.
Caller: caller name/phone, and Call Back Caller for reachable callers.

Creating & editing calls¶

New Call (F3) opens the New Incident form. It is laid out in the order you work a call: Location and its map on the left; Call for Service, Narrative, Involved and Caller on the right.

Field	Notes
Location	Structured: Postal, Street (+ cross street), and an optional Location landmark, over a map you can pin. Strongly recommended but not required; a call can be created without one.
Call Type	Type to search: all words you type must appear in the code or name, so `shoot` finds `SHOOTING/ACTIVE SHOOTER` and `traffic stop` finds both traffic stop types. Click the field with nothing typed to browse the full list, sorted alphabetically by name and shown as `CODE - NAME`. On a touch screen such as an iPad, the first tap opens that list without the keyboard so you can scroll and tap; tap the field again, or Type to search at the top of the list, to type. Arrow keys move, Enter picks, Esc puts the field back. Picking a type auto-fills the Priority and a default Nature. The default pursuit type is `PURSUIT - FOOT/VEHICLE PURSUIT`, so it sits under F.
Priority	P1-P5; auto-set from the call type, editable.
Nature	Free text (required).
Department	Which department the call is for (or Any).
Narrative	What the caller is reporting. Becomes the first line of the call log.
Involved	First Name, Last Name, DOB and Plate, if known. Each is logged as its own line (`PLATE:` / `INVOLVED PARTY:`) ahead of the narrative, and run automatically once the call is created: the plate and the person both; with no DOB the person return lists everyone with that name, same as Lookup. The full returns are attached to the call a few seconds later.
Caller	Optional name + phone.
Assign Units	Optional; dispatches the chosen units the moment the call is created. Type part of a callsign and press Tab (or Enter) to add the best match; the box clears so you can type the next one straight away. Arrow keys pick a different match, and Backspace in the empty box removes the last unit. On a Fire or EMS call, picking Fire/EMS units here also pages them: their station tones and the announcement naming them go out as soon as the call is created, the same as pressing Page Fire/EMS for those units. If the call already paged by itself on creation, it is not paged twice.

Everything typed into Narrative and Involved is written to the call log under your dispatcher ID, and is shared with any linked agency. Calls created here, in-game, and by officers all flow onto the same board. Edit an existing call from its detail panel to change the call details; add to the narrative from the Comments tab, whose comment box stays pinned to the bottom of the panel however long the log gets.

Calls created here, in-game, and by officers all flow onto the same board. Edit an existing call from its detail panel to change any of these.

Pinning the exact spot¶

The location block on New Incident and 911 call-taking carries a map:

Click the map to drop the pin exactly where the incident is: a road, a driveway, anywhere. That point becomes the call's position, and the nearest postal comes along as the label.
Typing the street, cross street or landmark does not move the pin. Those name the place; they don't relocate it. Click the map again to move it.
Typing a postal snaps the pin to that postal's centre, the right answer when a postal is all you have.
Typing a postal also fills the street it sits on: type 3037 and Street reads PANORAMA DR, plus the cross street when there is one. Clicking the map does the same for the road nearest the spot you clicked. Either way it only fills an empty street (or one it filled earlier), so a street you typed yourself is never replaced. This works on all terminals with a Postal box, not just Dispatch. It works straight away with any postal pack, from the game's own road names. See FiveM → Postal street names for how your server can refine them. ER:LC has no street names to read, so there the street stays blank.
Reset pin drops the exact point and falls back to the postal's centre, keeping everything you typed. On the terminals without a map (MDT, Fire/EMS, Tow) it appears beside the postal whenever an exact position is in force, so an officer can clear a live-GPS position without retyping the location.

Postals

A postal is the numbered callout reference FiveM communities use. Live 911 callers bring their street in automatically from in-game GPS; a manually-entered postal is stored as the location reference. Postal packs are chosen in Admin.

911 call-taking¶

When an in-game 911 comes in (and a dispatcher is in-service), it rings on the console and appears in the 911 queue. Open it to answer.

Only members who can open the Dispatch console (a Dispatch department role, or owner/admin) can see the open 911 queue or answer, message, dispatch or close a 911. Once you create a call from it, the call carries the caller's name and phone in its Caller tab and the 911 transcript in its log, which all units on the call can read.

Only one dispatcher can answer a call. If two of you answer the same 911 at once, the first one takes it and the other is told who already has it. The same goes for the voice line: while another dispatcher is talking to the caller, the Phone panel shows Line in use instead of Join Voice, and Call Back Caller is refused until they hang up.

If the dispatcher who answered drops off (closed console, crash, signed out), any other dispatcher can Open the call from the 911 queue and carry on. Joining its voice line, or sending the caller a message, takes over the call: it shows as answered by you from then on, the thread notes the change, and the Busy moves to you. An internal note does not take it over.

The call-taking panel has two halves:

Left: the caller & conversation

Source, Caller (name/phone, or Anonymous), and Location.
Triangulate Location: runs a short simulated trace; the caller's GPS location stays hidden until it completes (anonymous callers can't be traced).
Reported by the caller: a 911 sent from the Civilian Portal shows the location the caller typed straight away, in the queue and on the caller card. It is what they told you, not a trace, so it stays marked that way. Triangulate still finds them only if they are in game.
Call Back Caller: opens a live voice callback window for reachable callers.
Live voice: if the caller placed a voice 911, the voice panel connects both directions (with hold support). By default the line is coloured to sound like a phone call in both directions, and recordings capture it that way; an admin can switch it back to raw microphone audio under Admin → General Settings → 911 Voice.
Text thread: the caller's /t911 messages. Reply to the caller, or add an internal-only note.

Right: create the incident

The form carries the same fields as New Incident: Call Type → Priority (auto) → Nature → Department, the structured Location block, Narrative with the Involved first name, last name, DOB and plate (run on create, as above), and Caller fields. Caller name/phone auto-import from the 911 (and are editable); once you triangulate, the caller's street/postal auto-fill the location. A portal caller's typed location fills it from the start: a number goes in Postal, anything else in Street, ready for you to tidy.

Create & Dispatch builds the formal call, folds the full 911 text thread into it as a transcript followed by your plate, involved party and narrative lines and then the plate and person returns, and takes you straight to the new call on the board.
Hang Up (no call) closes the 911 without creating a call (false alarm / handled verbally). It also ends the voice line.
A caller left holding on the voice line: if you Create & Dispatch or Merge a voice 911 while nobody is on its line, the caller's line ends and their screen says the call was passed to responding units. If you are still talking to them, the line stays open until you hang up.
When no dispatcher can take a 911 any more, because nobody is Available or Busy on the server and the dispatcher who answered it has gone, it is not left sitting in the queue:
- a call with something in it (anything the caller wrote, your notes, a voice recording, or a located caller you answered) is passed to units as a pending incident, with the 911 transcript and a Passed to units: no dispatcher available line, the same as a text report sent when nobody is on duty. Field consoles are toned and stations paged as usual;
- a voice caller still holding is told no dispatcher is available and asked to send a text report, and the line ends;
- a call with nothing in it is closed, with a note in its thread.
A dispatcher on Standby still has the 911s they answered: they are only passed on once that dispatcher is gone too. - Idle 911s don't stay open. A 911 with no activity for 30 minutes (no new text from either side and nobody on its voice line) is passed to units if it has anything in it (as above), or closed if not, even with a dispatcher on duty. Either way the dispatcher who answered it is freed from Busy. A call someone is still talking on is never touched.

Caller hung up

If the caller drops, you can still create a call from what was gathered; nothing is lost.

Pre-Arrival¶

Work the caller through a set of protocol questions, get a determinant code that can set the call's priority, then read them the instructions (CPR, bleeding control, get out and stay out, do not follow the vehicle) while units are on the way. Each step you read is logged to the call, so responding units see it on their MDT before they arrive.

Start it from a call's Pre-Arrival tab, from the Pre-Arrival button at the bottom of the New Incident form, or from the 911 call-taking panel. If an answer means send help now, a dispatch button appears and the questions carry on.

See Pre-Arrival for the protocols, the codes and how to edit them.

Assigning, statuses & dispositions¶

Attach units to a call and mark one primary; Dispatch nearest available picks the closest free unit.
Statuses are color-coded and, for call-statuses (Enroute/Scene/etc.), require the unit to be attached. All status changes are timestamped in the unit's incident times (not in the call notes).
Close a call with a disposition. Common codes: ARR (Arrest), CIT (Citation), WARN (Warning), GOA (Gone on Arrival), INFO (info only). Any text is accepted.
Reopen a closed call to put it back on the board (history is kept).
Merge one call into another (the source is closed and its comments copied over). Linked incidents of the same event are never merged, and neither are calls for different agencies (a police call and a fire call): link them with Add Agency instead, so each agency's own notes stay with it.
Add Agency: open a linked incident for Fire/EMS, Tow or Police at this location. The event shows as one row on the board with a badge per agency.
Secondary location and Transport can be recorded on a call.
Scene timer: set an officer-safety welfare timer on a call; it warns when it expires.
Page Fire/EMS (Fire/EMS incidents only): play your community's station tones on all Fire & EMS consoles that have their pager on, and read the call out. A picker lists everyone on duty on the fire side, already ticked, with a preview of what will be said. Untick whoever is not turning out, then send. Your selection decides what is announced; everyone with a pager on still hears it, the way a tone-out goes over the air whether or not it names you. That is how you page several halls at once: "Station 1 Medic 1, Station 5 Engine 55, Battalion 1…". After sending, the button shows the time it went out so a second dispatcher does not re-tone a hall that was just paged. Works for all communities, including ER:LC. See Station Paging.
Tone Out (FiveM, Inferno station alerting only): tone a fire hall in game for this incident - doors, lights and the call on the station screens. Pick which fire/EMS department's station it reaches, or let it take the station nearest the call. It always fires, so use it for a second alarm, for mutual aid, or to re-tone a crew that missed the turnout; it works before any unit is assigned. The game server writes back onto the call whether the tones actually dropped. The button only appears when your community runs station alerts - see Fire & EMS.

Page Fire/EMS and Tone Out are different buttons

Page Fire/EMS plays audio on the Fire & EMS console and works anywhere. Tone Out opens bay doors inside FiveM and needs the Inferno resource. They sit next to each other and many communities use both — one turns the crew out on their console, the other turns the hall out in game.

Tone Board¶

FiveM only. The tile appears only when your game server is actually running inferno-station-alert — if your community does not use Inferno, there is no Tone Board and no Tone Out button on incidents. See Inferno station alerting.

The Tone Board tile opens a free-form fire turnout that belongs to no incident. The per-call Tone Out button answers "page the station for this call"; the board answers "tone these halls now" — a second alarm across several stations, a district recall, or an announcement at a hall with nothing going on.

Stations: click the halls to tone. They are read live from your game server, so the list is your real stations — there is nothing to type and nothing to configure.
Doors: once a hall is selected, tick the bays to open. They come pre-ticked with the hall's selection from Admin → FiveM → Station alerts → Which doors open; with none ticked, all bays open.
Colours and tone: the unit-indicator colours (red / green / blue) and which tone plays. The tone list also comes from your server's own Inferno configuration.
Message: read aloud at the station (with Inferno's Voice Turnout addon) and shown on its screens.
Tone Out drops tones and opens doors. Message Only announces the text with neither — for "the LT is wanted on the phone", not a turnout.
Recent shows what was sent and whether it landed. PENDING simply means the game server has not collected it yet (it polls about six times a minute), so it is not a failure.

The tile is missing, or the station list is empty

Both come from the game rather than from a setting. Admin → FiveM → Station alerts says whether PulseCAD can see Inferno on your server; if it cannot, start inferno-station-alert and give it about a minute. An empty station list with Inferno detected means no station locations have been built with Inferno's own in-game tool yet.

ALL CAPS & Correct Text¶

Dispatch runs ALL CAPS. On the message and comment composers there's also a Correct Text button:

It sends your message to a server-side spell-check that fixes spelling and typos without rephrasing (10-codes, callsigns, plates, postals, and street names are preserved) and returns it in ALL CAPS.
Then you send normally (Enter or Send). You never have to use it; it's a one-click cleanup.
The same boxes also have your browser's own spellcheck switched on: a misspelled word is underlined, and right-clicking it offers corrections. That needs no AI and works on all plans. Other console fields (callsigns, plates, codes, names) are deliberately left unchecked.

Requires AI

Correct Text uses AI Assist (Admin → AI Assist). With AI Assist off it simply uppercases the text.

Broadcasts, signs & cams¶

Signal 100 / Emergency Traffic: raise a station-wide broadcast (with presets like Signal 100, Emergency Traffic, 10-3). It shows on all MDTs and in-game until cleared. If nobody clears it, it comes down on its own after 2 hours, or after 30 minutes with no dispatcher in service anywhere in the community.
Smart Signs: change what in-game roadway signs show. See Smart signs below.
Unit Cams: a grid of on-duty units; click one to view its latest live body-cam frame. Body cam is a Pulse Pro plugin: it sends dispatch a snapshot about six times a minute, and nothing is recorded.
Recordings: browse and play the community's 911 voice recordings, with transcripts where available. Recording is Pulse Pro and up, kept 30 days on Pulse Pro and 60 on Pulse Max.

Smart signs¶

Found under Roads & Signs (F8), and in the Road Conditions board panel, when your community runs smart signs. The list shows all signs, their size, and what they say right now, with who changed it and when.

Change one sign: click its name. That selects only that sign and loads its current message, ready to edit.
Change several at once: tick their boxes, or press Select all. One message goes to all selected signs. If the selected signs differ in size, the message box shrinks to the smallest one, so the message fits all of them.
Type one row per Line. Text is uppercased and stops at the sign's characters per line, and the preview shows how it will read.
Update sends the message to the game. Clear puts the selected signs back to their default message.

On Standby you can see the signs but not change them; press Go Available first. An admin sets up the signs, and who else may change them, in Admin → Dispatch & CAD → Smart Signs.

Panic & distress¶

When a unit signals PANIC (in-game, or via the panic control), the console shows a red OFFICER DISTRESS banner with the unit, its location, and the associated call by the number the board shows, and sounds a repeating alarm until it's cleared. On PulseSquare the unit's row turns solid flashing red. The banner survives a page refresh: it is rebuilt from the units still in panic, and stays acknowledged once you have acknowledged it unless that unit raises panic again.

Editable board layout¶

Click Edit Board to rearrange the console:

Drag a panel by its header to move it; drag the bottom-right corner to resize.
Add / remove widgets (Units, Incidents, 911 Queue, Map, Messages, Dispatchers, etc.).
Your layout is saved per dispatcher; each operator keeps their own arrangement.

Terminals & preset layouts¶

The tab strip above the board holds your terminals. Each one is a separate, independently saved arrangement, so you can keep a working board on one tab and a purpose-built one on another. Hit + to add a terminal from a preset layout, or use the Preset layout picker in Edit Board to reshape the terminal you are on. Double-click a tab to rename it.

Preset	What it is for
Blank Terminal	Start empty and add panels yourself
Primary Dispatch	The everything-board: units, incidents, detail and map
Intake Terminal	Answer, locate, queue it up: 911 queue, unassigned, map and roads
Field Terminal	Eyes on patrol: units, unit cams, incidents and detail
Comms Terminal	Messages, BOLOs, lookup and dispatchers
Roads Terminal	Roads and signs with BOLOs, and the map alongside: a highway patrol or DOT seat, or one running an event
Radio Terminal	Working the air: the radio console full width across the top, with units, map and CAD log beneath it

Radio Terminal needs PulseRadio

The Radio Terminal preset is only offered to communities that have PulseRadio, since the console it is built around is a PulseRadio surface. Without it the preset does not appear, and neither does the Radio tab or the Radio board panel.

Multi-monitor pop-out¶

Pulse Pro and up. Any board panel, the map, or an incident-detail view can pop out into its own OS window. Drag it to a second monitor and it stays live, updating in real time alongside the main console. Dispatchers running multiple screens can keep the map on one display, the incident they're working on another, and the board in the middle.

Keyboard shortcuts¶

Key	Action
`F1`	Board
`F2`	911 Queue
`F3`	New Call
`F4`	Map
`F5`	Lookup
`F6`	Messages
`F7`	BOLOs
`F8`	Roads & Signs
`F9`	CAD Log
`F10`	Dispatchers

The map

The dispatch map shows all on-duty units; they appear once on duty and, with FiveM connected, move live. Active calls are pinned by their postal/location. See Live Unit Tracking.