Computer-aided Dispatch - Methodology

Methodology

Computer-assisted dispatch systems use one or more servers located in a central dispatch office, which communicate with computer terminals in a Communications Center or with mobile data terminals installed in vehicles. There are a multitude of CAD programs that suit different department needs, but the fundamentals of each system are the same. They include:

• Log On/Off times of Police Personnel (sworn/non-sworn)
• Generating and archiving incidents that begin with a phone call from a citizen or originate from personnel in the field
• Assigning field personnel to incidents
• Updating Incidents and logging those updates
• Generating Case Numbers for incidents that require an investigation
• Timestamping every action taken by the dispatcher at the terminal

In an ideal setting, a call is received by a call-taker and information about the call is inputted into the CAD template. Simply, Location, Reporting Party and Incident are the main fields that have to be populated by type-codes. For example, if there was a burglary in progress, the type-code for that incident could be "BURG"; when BURG is typed out, then the program will spell out "BURGLARY (in progress)". If the location was at the 1400 block of Madison, the type-code could be "14MAD." The reporting party information would be populated by the call-taker including last name, first name, call-back number, etc.

A typical CAD printout looks something like this based on the example above:

----------------------------------- LOCATION - 1400 Madison RP - Doe, John, 555-5555, 1404 Madison INCIDENT - BURGLARY (in progress) SYNOPSIS - "Caller reports a possible burglary in progress based on seeing individuals inside the residence/Caller advises 2 persons inside the location and call advises the current residents are on vacation." -----------------------------------

Again, granted as it can be seen that the fields are spelled out, the call-taker uses those abbreviations that are already predetermined in order to quickly gather and transmit the information.

The dispatcher then receives the call from the call-taker and is able dispatch the call to those available. The dispatcher's screen would show the available personnel that are dispatchable. A typical setting can be exemplified by this:

----------------------------------- INCIDENT # - 554123 LOCATION - 1400 Madison RP - Doe, John, 555-5555 INCIDENT - BURGLARY (In Progress) SYNOPSIS - "Caller reports a possible burglary in progress based on seeing individuals inside the residence/Caller advises 2 persons inside the location and call advises the current residents are on vacation." UNITS - 746 (Pri), 749 (Cov) ----------------------------------- Units available - (3) Units out of service - (2) 745 - Avail. 746 - Not Avail. Inc # 554121 747 - Avail. 748 - Avail. 749 - Not Avail. Inc # 554122 -----------------------------------

Everything that is gathered, dispatched and disposed is usually stored in a central server in which the type codes reside, or possibly another server. All of these calls which have incident numbers attached to them can be recalled by an internal search engine. For example, a request for a printout of all calls to Madison in the past hour could be gathered by querying the CAD program by Location:

Search by: Location LOCATION --- Result: (Now filled in) Search by: Location LOCATION --- Result: (1) Incidents

CAD can be used in a multitude of ways, whether it is for radio logs, call logs or statistical analysis.