Skip to main content

Setting Up a Multi-Agency Dispatch Centre

For a county or regional dispatch centre, a mutual-aid coordination centre, or a dispatch company that pages and tracks several independent departments. In Resgrid every agency keeps its own department (roster, units, settings, records) and the centre is a department too, joined to each agency by a department link. Links share active calls and unit/personnel status in the direction you choose, and resource orders move units between agencies.

1 — Structure​

PieceHow to set it up
Centre departmentIts own personnel are the dispatchers (role Dispatcher); stations = the centre and any backup centre; usually no units.
Agency departmentsEach agency follows its own guide (fire, EMS …) and administers itself.
Department linksFrom the centre's Department → Links, create a link to each agency (the agency accepts it). Choose what is shared: active calls, units, personnel status — typically calls to the agency and status from the agency.
Dispatcher permissionsIn each agency, the link grants the centre the ability to create calls in that agency; the agency keeps close/delete rights.

2 — Dispatching through links​

  • Dispatchers use the Dispatch app (or the web) signed in to the centre department. The New Call page lists linked agencies' units and groups as dispatch targets.
  • A call created for an agency lives in that agency's department (its numbering, its records, its notifications); the centre sees it on its own dashboard through the link.
  • Run cards are configured per agency (the agency's types and units). A regional standard of Structure fire cards in every agency keeps behaviour consistent.
  • Email / SMS import: CAD pages can go to each agency's import address; or the centre creates calls by hand.

3 — The Big Board and mapping​

  • Run the Big Board in the centre with linked departments' units and calls visible.
  • Mapping shows units from every linked agency (subject to each agency's view unit locations permission and the link's sharing settings).
  • Weather alerts subscribed for the whole region in the centre department.

4 — Resource orders​

Use Orders for cross-agency moves: the centre (or an agency) raises an order (2 tenders to Station 4 for water shuttle), agencies fill it with specific units, and fills are accepted/returned — with the whole exchange audited. Agencies with Records can log the same order as a deployment with the order document as a snapshot.

5 — Communication​

  • Chat: create a custom channel in the centre department for coordinators; incident channels stay inside the owning agency.
  • Messages / distribution lists: chiefs@ across agencies via contacts.
  • Workflows in the centre: Call created → post to the regional Discord; in each agency: Call created → local notifications.
  • Communication tests run per agency.

6 — Records and reporting​

Records stay per agency (each agency's NERIS identity and definitions). The centre uses Reports → Active calls and resources and its own Run records for centre activity; for regional statistics ask agencies to schedule report exports to a shared mailbox, or use saved reports per agency.

Setup checklist​

  • Centre department created; dispatchers with the Dispatcher role and Dispatch app login permission
  • Each agency linked; sharing directions verified with a test call
  • Regional call type / priority naming agreed and applied in every agency
  • Big Board running with linked units visible
  • One resource order filled and returned end-to-end