Skip to content

Linked Incidents

When a call needs more than one agency, PulseCAD opens one incident per agency and links them. A medical call is a police incident and a Fire/EMS incident, each with its own incident number, problem, priority, units and log. They share the scene (address, location, caller) and they can share log lines, but each agency works and clears its own incident.

The three agencies are Police, Fire/EMS (one agency, even if your community runs EMS as its own department) and Tow. Two police departments on the same call, for example LSPD and BCSO, still share one police incident.

Opening a linked incident

There are four ways a linked incident gets opened:

Who How
Dispatch Add Agency on the incident. Pick the agency, its problem (call type), the department and the priority. For Fire/EMS, tick Page Fire/EMS now to tone the hall straight away. It is unticked by default, so adding Fire to a call does not page anyone unless you ask; you can also page later with Page Fire/EMS on the incident.
Dispatch Send a call to departments of more than one agency (the Department picker on New Call, Edit or the 911 call-taking form). Each agency gets its own linked incident.
An officer or crew REQUEST FIRE/EMS, REQUEST TOW or REQUEST POLICE on the MDT incident screen. Only a unit attached to the call can request another agency.
A 911 caller An in-game text 911 that asks for police and fire, taken with no dispatcher on duty, opens both incidents.

The new incident copies the scene: address, postal, location, map pin and caller. It gets its own problem. A police call type is not a fire problem, so the person opening it picks the Fire/EMS call type.

Paging a unit's request

When an officer requests Fire/EMS, the page follows your community's Station Paging rules. With a dispatcher on duty (and paging set to the dispatcher pages), the Fire incident lands in the dispatcher's pending queue for them to tone. With nobody dispatching, the hall is toned right away.

Sharing log lines

All lines in the log are shared by default. A shared line shows on the incident it was written on and on all linked incidents, tagged with where it came from:

[8] BATTALION 10 ON SCENE, ASSUMING COMMAND [Shared FIRE, 26000002 - CPR - 7063 Magda Dr N]
[7] 5823 STARTING CPR [Shared]
  • [Shared FIRE, <incident #> - <problem> - <address>]: the line came from the linked Fire incident.
  • [Shared]: your own incident's line, also visible to the other agencies.
  • [Not shared]: your own incident's line, kept to your agency and dispatch.

To keep a line to your own agency:

  • MDT: on ADD CMNT, untick SHARED before adding. It re-ticks itself after each note.
  • Dispatch: pick POLICE only or FIRE only in the Send to box instead of All agencies. It goes back to All agencies after each note.

An unshared line is never sent to the other agency's screens. It is not hidden on their console; the server leaves it out before anything reaches them. Dispatch always sees all lines.

On the MDT

The incident screen gains a LINKED row naming the other agencies' incidents, with their units and status. It stays after the other agency clears, so you can see that Fire has left the scene.

Linked incidents of other agencies do not appear in your call queue or on your map. You see them through the LINKED row on your own incident, with only what they shared.

On the Dispatch console

Dispatch works an event as one row on the board, with a badge per agency: POLICE 1, FIRE 2, and PEND on an agency that nobody is assigned to yet. The row stays on the first incident that is still open and takes the event's most urgent priority.

Selecting the row opens the event:

  • An agency strip under the incident header. Click an agency to work its incident; the buttons below (units, status, close, page) act on the agency that is showing.
  • Comments is the whole event's log, with each line's agency and, for an unshared line, who can see it.
  • Send to picks who gets your note.
  • Edit changes the address, location and caller for all open incidents in the event. The problem and priority stay each agency's own.

Drop a unit on the row and it lands on its own agency's incident when the event has one: a Fire unit dropped on the police side goes onto the Fire incident.

A unit never goes onto another agency's incident. If you assign a tow truck (or an engine) to a police call that has no Tow incident yet, Add Agency opens with Tow already chosen: pick the problem and the Tow incident is created on the same call with the unit dispatched to it.

From the field it is one step: a unit that presses SELF ASSIGN on another agency's call gets its own agency's incident on the same scene, opened and joined at once, and the MDT takes it there. A tow truck self-assigning to a police call gets a Tow incident linked to it.

A call that no agency has claimed yet (no department on it) is open to any unit. The first unit to join claims it for its own agency, and the board then shows that agency on the call. Units from other agencies who self-assign after that get their own linked incident, as above.

Page Fire/EMS and Tone Out appear only on a Fire/EMS incident, never on the police or tow side.

This works the same in the PulseSquare and PulseMin console looks.

Changes and closing

Changes to an incident are written to its log in this form, and are shared:

[Notification] [POLICE]-Problem changed from WELCK-WELFARE CHECK to ASSTK9-WELFARE CHECK by DISPATCH
[Notification] [POLICE]-Address changed from 100 Test St to 200 New Ave by DISPATCH
[Notification] [POLICE]-Priority changed from 3 to 1 by DISPATCH
[Notification] [FIRE]-Incident 26000002 opened, linked to POLICE incident 26000001 by POLICE
[Notification] [POLICE]-Incident 26000001 closed, dispo GOA by DISPATCH

Each incident closes on its own. Closing the police incident leaves Fire working, with its units, and Fire's log shows the police close. There is no main incident in an event.

Two incidents of the same event cannot be merged into each other.