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Law Enforcement (MDT)

The Mobile Data Terminal is the officer's console. From here you go on duty, run statuses, work the call queue, run NLETS-style records queries, file reports, message other units, and watch the live map. Open it from the Law Enforcement tile on the community hub.

The MDT is styled as a classic "Win32" terminal (title bar, menu bar, toolbar, status strip) so it reads like a real CAD. The same console powers three surfaces: Law Enforcement (/mdt), Fire & EMS (/fire), and Tow & DOT (/tow). This page documents the LE surface.

You must be on duty

Almost nothing works until you Go On Duty. Until then the terminal shows only the login card. Going on duty is what puts your unit on the Dispatch board and the live map.

Going on duty

The login card is the first thing you see. Fill it in and press GO ON DUTY.

Field What it does
Server Only shown when your community runs more than one server. You must pick one before going on duty; your unit and all live dispatch are scoped to it. Defaults to the community's primary server.
Department A row of logo tiles, one per agency on this surface (e.g. LSPD, BCSO, PBPD, SSPD, SAHP). Click a tile to select it; the login emblem changes to that agency's badge. If only one department exists it is auto-selected.
Station Shown only for departments that have stations configured (mainly Fire/EMS).
Unit ID (callsign) Your callsign, e.g. 5361. Selecting a department can pre-fill a prefix (e.g. LSPD → 53).
Presets If you turned on auto-callsign in My Account, your saved callsign presets appear as one-click chips.
Capabilities Self-select the capabilities you're carrying (K9, SWAT, FTO, etc.). Configured per department in Admin.
Phone Optional contact number (only if your community enabled the phone field).

Press ← Hub to go back to the community hub without going on duty.

Change your login without going off duty

Use Options → Modify Login (or the MORE grid) to switch department, callsign, phone, or capabilities mid-shift. Your unit stays on duty and keeps its call.

Roster-managed members

If your community links a roster (PulseRoster), you'll only see the departments your roster assigns you and the capabilities you're certified for, and your callsign/badge may pre-fill from the roster. If your roster access is suspended or unassigned, going on duty is blocked with a clear message. Owners and super-admins are exempt.

Press Link In-Game Tablet on the CAD hub under Your terminals to generate a one-time code, or, from the MDT itself, use the login card or Options → Link FiveM Game. Then in-game type:

/cadlink <code>

The code is valid for 10 minutes and links this CAD account to your in-game character so your live GPS position shows on the map. This is a one-time setup per account. See FiveM Integration.

The terminal chrome

Every LE MDT screen sits inside the same frame:

  • Title bar: PulseCAD Mobile - [Law Enforcement], with a light/dark theme toggle and the window glyphs.
  • Menu bar: dropdown menus: Login/Logout, Queries, Messages, Units, Calls, Status, Tools (Map / Browser / Records), Options (Modify Login / Link FiveM Game / Reset Column Widths).
  • Status strip: your Jurisdiction, Unit callsign, current Call, and a colored Status chip.
  • Toolbar: two rows of buttons (below). Function-key badges on the buttons match the keyboard shortcuts.

Toolbar: top row (navigation & actions)

Button Key Opens
Back - Previous screen
Map F1 Live map
Display Call F8 Your current incident
TRS F10 Traffic Stop
FG F4 Field Gathering / On-Site
Plate F5 Vehicle query
Person F6 Person query
Queries F7 Query returns (flashes on a new return)
Msgs F11 Inbox (flashes on unread)
Reporting F3 Citation Writer, Crash Writer and Forms
Call Queue F9 Active + pending calls
Time Stamp - Log a time stamp
Unit Times - A unit's call/time history

Toolbar: bottom row (status)

E · S · OK · UT/2nd Loc · AD/2nd Loc · C · OOS · Clear w/Dispo · More · Units · Blackout Screen

Status (10-codes)

Set your status from the bottom toolbar row, the Status menu, or a keyboard shortcut. Colors are admin-configurable per surface in Admin → Status Codes; the built-in defaults are:

Button Code Status Color
E 10-76 Enroute (ENROUTE) Red
S 10-23 On Scene (SCENE) Blue
OK 10-4 On scene & OK (OK) Green
UT/2nd Loc - Unit Transport (UT) Orange
AD/2nd Loc - At 2nd Location (AD) Light blue
C 10-8 Clear / Available (AVAIL) Black
OOS 10-7 Out of Service (OOS) Gray

Call statuses are gated

E, S, OK, UT, and AD are on-call statuses: you can only set them while you're assigned to an incident. Press one with no active call and the terminal pops a message box and refuses the change. This keeps the board honest. To go enroute you first self-assign or get dispatched to a call.

  • C (Clear) sets you AVAIL. If you were on a call it also clears you off it; if you were the last unit, the call closes and drops off the board.
  • Clear w/Dispo (F12) closes the call with a disposition (ADVISED, ARREST MADE, GONE ON ARRIVAL, CITATION ISSUED, VERBAL WARNING, REPORT TAKEN, …) then sets you AVAIL. Dispositions are admin-configurable.
  • OOS requires you to pick a reason code (MEAL, PAPERWORK, COURT, TRAINING, …), which is logged to your unit history. Reason codes are admin-configurable.
  • UT/2nd Loc and AD/2nd Loc log a secondary location onto your active call (unlocking the incident's 2NDRY LOC tab).

The call queue

The Call Queue (++Call Queue++ toolbar button) shows two sections, Active Calls and Pending Calls, sharing one set of columns:

Units / P · Problem · Address · Location · Division · ID · Time

  • Active lists calls with units assigned (your own calls are highlighted); Pending lists calls with no unit yet, showing priority (P1/P2 highlighted).
  • Problem shows CODE - NATURE (e.g. TRAF - TRAFFIC STOP); Division is the jurisdiction (assigned unit's agency).
  • Columns are drag-resizable and persist per user: drag a column edge to resize. Reset via Options → Reset Column Widths or More → Reset Columns.
  • Click any call to open its incident detail.
  • Call numbers are short and restart each day: 001, 002, 003, so a number is something you can say on the radio. Open a call and its detail header shows both - the short CALL number and the full INC#, which is the one a citation records and the one to quote when referring to a call from another day.

Watch List

Your board is filtered to your own agency plus any agencies you add to your Watch List (their units and calls appear). Calls you're assigned to always show. Open it from Watch List on the Call Queue or Units screen.

Incident detail

Opening a call shows its full incident screen: a header grid (PROB / ADDR / LOC / POSTAL / CASE / TIME / DIVISION / INC# / PRI / TYPE / STATUS), an action row, and tabs.

Actions:

Action What it does
SELF ASSIGN Attach yourself and go ENROUTE (shown when you're not on the call)
ADD CMNT Add a comment to the activity log
ACK UPDATES (n) Acknowledge new log entries; the count clears when read (persisted per call). Lines you put on the call (your own attach, a query return you attached, a comment you typed) never count; older un-acknowledged updates from dispatch still do
GENERATE CASE # Request a case number (you must be attached; runs a short processing delay)
MSG UNITS Compose a message pre-addressed to every unit on the call
MAP IT Center the map on the call

Tabs:

  • INFO: assigned units (status-colored chips) and primary unit, plus the numbered activity log. Entries are numbered chronologically ([1] oldest); unread lines are highlighted until you ACK UPDATES, except lines you wrote yourself, which are never highlighted. Long entries (e.g. attached query returns, 911 transcripts) expand; View opens any line full-screen.
  • PRIORS: prior CAD calls at this address (each incident number is a hot-link).
  • CALLER: caller name/phone, or "self-generated" for officer-created calls. Call Back Caller opens a voice window; Call Recordings for the incident are listed here.
  • CAUTION: community-wide cautionaries for the location (officer-safety flags). Add your own inline.
  • 2NDRY LOC: secondary locations logged via UT/AD (disabled until one exists).

You can also Change Address / Change Problem on the active call from the MORE grid.

Traffic stops & field events

Two purpose-built quick-start forms create a call, attach you, and set you SCENE in one step:

  • TRS · Traffic Stop (F10): enter a plate and a location, then submit. The stop opens straight away as a TRAFFIC STOP call with you attached and SCENE, and the plate is run once, at that point; nothing comes back while you are typing it. A few seconds later the full NLETS vehicle return and the registered owner land on the call's log and in Queries (F7). The call's division auto-assigns to your agency.
  • FG · Field Gathering / On-Site (F4): pick a problem from your community's call types and a location; it creates the incident and puts you on scene.

One call at a time

You can't start a new stop/field event while already on a call; clear your current one first.

Queries (NLETS-style returns)

Run records from the toolbar, the Queries menu, or the MORE grid. Every query produces a formatted PULSECAD QUERY RETURN (teletype layout with an NLETS-style control header).

Query Returns
Plate / Vehicle (F5) Registration, owner, stolen/expired-reg/no-insurance/BOLO/owner-warrant flags, contacts history
Person (F6) Identity, driver's license + status/points, carry permit & registered firearms, wants/warrants, criminal history, contacts history. Search by name + date of birth, SSN, or DL#
Gun Firearm serial → registered owner + stolen / owner-warrant flags
Boat Watercraft/hull registration → owner + flags
Find Address All CAD calls at a location (each INC# hot-links to the incident)
Incident Search Look up an incident by number, case #, and/or date

Searching by name needs a date of birth

A name search requires the subject's date of birth; a surname on its own returns every person who shares it, which is not a lookup. If you don't have a DOB, search by SSN or DL# instead; neither requires one.

All dates are MM/DD/YYYY. Type 04/15/1989, not 1989-04-15.

How returns behave:

  • Colored status chips surface the critical flags at a glance: red STOLEN, ACTIVE WARRANT, DL SUSPENDED, NO INSURANCE; amber BOLO / DL EXPIRED; green DL VALID / NO FLAGS.
  • Include checkboxes on the plate/person forms let you omit sections (registration, DL status, warrants, criminal history, contacts, etc.); unchecked sections are left out of the return.
  • A section you didn't ask for says NOT REQUESTED, never "none on file". An unrun search is not a clean record, and the return will not imply that it is.
  • CONTACTS / CAD history lists every call the person or plate is tied to and what happened (warning/citation/arrest); each [INC#] is a clickable hot-link.
  • A name can match more than one person. When it does the return opens with a response count and each subject is labelled MATCH 1 OF 2, MATCH 2 OF 2. Every block is a full return with its own wants, criminal history, contacts and CAUTIONARY box. Read past the first one: the second subject's warrant is not in the first subject's block.
  • Running a plate auto-runs the registered owner as a second return.
  • Field queries don't yank you off your screen; they post to Queries (F7, the button flashes) so you open them when ready.
  • Attach to Incident posts a return into your active call's log; a CALL return offers Reopen & Self-Assign (closed call) or Go to Call.

Query history is kept per session (up to 40 returns), survives a page refresh, and is cleared only when you log out. Unread returns show a dot; F7 jumps to the newest unread, else the list.

Criminal history

Tick Criminal History on the person form and the return includes a CRIMINAL HISTORY block:

  • Convictions: each charge with its class, the court's disposition (GUILTY / REDUCED), the date and the originating report, plus felony / misdemeanour / infraction counts.
  • ** CONVICTED FELON ** and a red chip when there is a felony conviction on file.
  • Pending charges: filed but not yet adjudicated.
  • Dismissed / acquitted: shown, not hidden. "Charged and cleared" is a different fact from "never charged", and you can see which one you are looking at.
  • Active sentences, including probation and community service. A subject under court supervision is also called out with ** SUBJECT IS ON PROBATION **.
  • With data sharing on, shared-network priors from partner communities (labelled as such).

Click a [#report] to read the report behind a charge. Every charge that came from an approved report carries a clickable reference; it opens that report read-only, exactly as filed. A charge whose report has not been approved yet prints REF <number> (UNAPPROVED) as plain text instead and cannot be opened: an unapproved report is visible only to its author and to a supervisor who can approve it, so nobody reads a narrative before the supervisor has signed it off. The same applies to the warrant references in the WANTS / WARRANTS block.

If the court-records lookup fails, the block says COURT RECORDS UNAVAILABLE - RESULT UNKNOWN. That is not a clear record; confirm with dispatch.

Expunged cases never appear here.

Entering property as stolen

A plate, gun or boat return carries records-entry buttons:

  • Enter as Stolen: confirms the property into the CAD. This is what makes a return read STOLEN, flags it red for the next officer, alerts dispatch and lights up ALPR. A BOLO is raised automatically (see Admin).
  • Reject Report: appears when the owner has filed an unconfirmed report; declines it without entering.
  • Clear Stolen Entry: recovered or unfounded. Retires the BOLO the entry raised.

An owner's own report from the civilian portal shows as REPORTED STOLEN BY OWNER - UNCONFIRMED, NOT AN NCIC HIT with an amber chip until an officer confirms it. Treat it as information, not a hit.

Cross-community hits

With data sharing on, returns include out-of-city records, tagged with their source community.

Records Console & eCharging

The Reporting button opens the front door to everything you file, and it offers three destinations:

  • Citation Writer for citations, written warnings and impounds.
  • Crash Writer for collision reports and scene diagrams.
  • Forms for every other report type. This is the Records Console embedded in the MDT: arrests, incidents, DUIs, field interviews, use of force, warrants, supplements and the rest.

Citations, written warnings and crashes are not in the Forms list, because the two writers own them. That is deliberate: one purpose-built screen per report type beats the same report filed two different ways.

Reporting runs full-screen

While you are in reporting (the launcher, the Records Console, or a writer) the MDT's menu bar, status strip and toolbar rows are hidden so the form gets the whole screen. This matters most on the in-game tablet, where the CAD is a small window. Every F-key still works, and Exit (top of the surface) closes reporting and returns you to the console.

  • Investigation and Probation Record are among the built-in forms. An Investigation is a case file for the work that happens after an incident (status, lead investigator, steps taken, evidence, interviews, findings), kept separate from the incident report itself; it never appears on a person's priors, because its subject is a person of interest rather than someone charged. A Probation Record holds the court's conditions, the check-ins against them and any violations. If neither fits, build your own report type in Admin → Report Forms.
  • New Form launches the report you want and opens the full form editor (real form fields, penal-code charge picker, narrative). Traffic-stop forms pre-fill the vehicle. Add charges from the penal code and fines/points/consequences are computed for you.
  • Drafts are auto-saved and persist ~24 hours across logout, so an unfinished report is still there when you return. A Drafts button shows the count.

Citation Writer and Crash Writer keep what you have typed while you go and do something else. Step out to run another name and come back and the ticket is exactly as you left it, through a page refresh too. It is cleared by three things and only three: filing it, pressing New Ticket / New Report, and signing out, so a filed ticket never seeds the next one, and nothing of yours is waiting for whoever signs in after you.

  • New Ticket / New Report (first button on the toolbar) clears the form and starts a fresh one, re-filling from the call you are on now.
  • Pick Subject and Pick Vehicle sit at the top of the subject, vehicle and registered-owner blocks: they pull a person or a plate straight off one of your recent lookups instead of retyping it.
  • Import Call pulls the call you are on onto the report.
  • Officer information is stamped for you: your duty character, callsign and agency, from the unit you are on duty as. It is not editable: the filed record is stamped from your session either way.
  • Required fields are tinted while they are empty and carry an asterisk, so you can see what is outstanding before you press Submit.

Citation types. The Citation Type field decides what the document becomes:

Type Fine and points Court date Where it shows up
Citation Applied Yes Priors, criminal history, the defendant's portal for a plea
Written Warning None No Prior warnings on a lookup
Verbal Warning None No Prior warnings on a lookup

A verbal warning is written up in full and kept, but nothing leaves the department: no fine, no points, no licence action, no court. Its value is the next stop: a person lookup with Criminal History ticked shows a PRIOR WARNINGS line with the count, the split between verbal and written, and the date of the last one, so the next officer can see this person has already been warned. - eCharging (MORE grid) is a fast path to file a citation: find the person, tick charges, add a narrative, file. Points and license actions apply automatically. - PREBOOK / start arrest deep-links open the editor straight onto an Arrest form.

Console tabs:

  • My Reports / All Records: searchable, filterable by type and status.
  • Supervisor Queue: supervisors/admins Approve or Kick Back (with feedback) reports pending approval.
  • Court / Judicial: sign/deny/activate/expunge warrants and adjudicate charges (court-staff roles; usually handled in the unified Court surface).

Signatures: on a citation you can Send Signature Request; the defendant signs or refuses on the civilian portal, and the status flips live (Awaiting → Signed / Refused / Mailed). Officers never sign for the defendant.

Warrants auto-file

Filing a warrant report creates the warrant automatically, with no separate request step. Until the court rules on it, the record reads Pending Court, then Signed / Denied.

Rap sheet & serve-warrant are also reachable straight from a person query return (see above).

Messages

The Msgs inbox (F11) holds direct messages, broadcasts, and query responses; the button flashes on unread and F11 jumps to the newest unread.

Compose lets you address a message several ways at once:

  • To… opens a recipient picker listing every community member, online and offline (offline members receive it on their next login).
  • Type space-separated tokens in the To field: callsigns, a department abbreviation (e.g. BCSO → all on-duty in that agency), or a dispatch zone code. Each resolves to a chip; unknown ones are flagged.
  • Leave addressing blank to broadcast to the whole community.

Replies keep the quoted history and prepend RE: once. High-priority messages are flagged as officer-safety. Send with the button or Alt+Enter.

Unit tools

  • Unit Times: pick a unit to pull its previous calls and time stamps (posts as a query return).
  • Time Stamp: log a timestamped note (foot patrol, meal, report writing…) to your own unit history.
  • Equip Info (MORE grid): look up any unit's capabilities, assignment, and on-foot status.
  • Unit Status summary: every on-duty unit with status, location, problem, and call; click a callsign to locate it on the map.

The live map

The map (F1) is a real GTA5 minimap with live units and call pins.

  • Live units move in real time from FiveM GPS. Markers are status-colored and shaped by context: a directional arrow (rotates with heading) for your own unit in a vehicle, a car icon for others, and plane/helicopter/boat glyphs for aircraft and watercraft; on-foot units show a dot.
  • Units in the same place stay readable. When units are close enough that their markers would sit on top of each other (a scene, a station lot, two officers in one car), they fan out into a short column of callsigns instead of hiding behind one another, and snap back to their exact positions as soon as you zoom in far enough to separate them. Markers also scale with the zoom level, so zooming out shrinks them rather than letting a few units cover a district.
  • Call pins are placed by the call's postal (falling back to stored coordinates) and colored by assignment status: red needs a unit, blue is covered by someone else, green is yours; click one to open the call.
  • Go to postal # search jumps to and drops a pin on any postal.
  • Base layers: the base maps your admins turned on in Admin → Maps: Los Santos views (Satellite, Atlas, Grid) and Cayo Perico. Only the enabled maps show in the switcher, and the admin's default map view decides which one opens first. A toggleable Postals label overlay (your community's postal pack) sits on top, and a Traffic data DOT overlay is on by default. Your choice is remembered.
  • Opening the map with an active call centers on it; "locate on map" from the Units screen zooms in on a unit.
  • Disconnected or stale units drop off automatically.

See Live Map and ALPR.

Right-click menus

Right-click a row on the call queue or the unit board for its common actions, rather than hunting for the button.

  • On a call: Call Information, Self Assign (or Assist, when another unit is already on it), Make My Unit Responsible, Add Comment, Show on Map, Copy Call Number, Copy Incident Number, Clear With Disposition.
  • On a unit: Message Unit, Unit Times, open the call they are on, Show on Map, Copy Callsign, Copy Phone.

Entries grey out when they do not apply right now (nothing selected, not your call) instead of disappearing, so the menu keeps the same shape. Everything in it is also reachable from a button or a key - the menu is a shortcut, never the only way to do something.

A different console: Spillman

The MDT can wear a Spillman look, chosen under MORE → Display or set as your department's default in Admin → Departments. It is not just a repaint: the call queue and unit board sit on screen permanently, and calls, queries and reports open as windows over them.

Everything you can do on the standard console you can do here - the F-keys are unchanged, MORE is still available, and nothing about a call, a status or a report is recorded differently. See Customization.

MORE grid, dark mode & blackout

  • More opens a grid of extra actions grouped as LINKS (Records, Browser), MISCELLANEOUS (Find Address, Modify Login, Night/dark-mode, Reset Columns, Out of Vehicle, Logout), PERSONNEL/UNIT (Vehicle/Personnel Search, Unit Times, Unit Status, Equip Info, Activity Log Entry), INCIDENT (Primary Unit, Generate Case #, Incident Search, Change Address, Change Problem), and QUERY (Boat Check, GUN).
  • Night (MORE grid) or the title-bar toggle switches the terminal between light and dark mode.
  • Blackout Screen darkens the whole terminal ("tap anywhere to wake"), handy to hide the CAD without logging off.
  • A built-in Browser (Tools → Browser) loads web pages in-CAD; sites that block embedding open in a new tab.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcuts fire the on-screen buttons (they're ignored while you're typing in a field, except Escape).

Key Action
F1 Map
F2 OK / Code 4 (OK)
F3 Reporting
F4 Field Gathering (FG)
F5 Plate query
F6 Person query
F7 Queries / latest return
F8 Display current call
F9 Call Queue
F10 Traffic Stop (TRS)
F11 Messages / latest unread
F12 Clear w/ Disposition
Esc Close the top modal / MORE grid

Status shortcuts are still gated

F2 (OK, an on-call status) only takes effect when you're assigned to an incident, the same rule as the toolbar buttons. On Scene is auto-set on arrival, so it keeps no hotkey of its own.

Officer distress (panic)

If an officer triggers panic in-game (the in-game panic key / /panic), every MDT shows a flashing red OFFICER DISTRESS banner with the callsign and location until acknowledged (ACK), and plays a tone. A dispatcher can also request a status check, and you'll get a banner with a CODE 4 · I'M OK button that clears it and notifies dispatch.

In-game link

Panic, live GPS, and ALPR all flow from the in-game resource once your character is linked (see Going on duty). Full details in FiveM Integration.