OperationsCommander - https://opscom.wiki

OPSCOM Enforce - iOS & Android

The new beta admin enforcement app compatible with both iOS and Android, called "OPSCOM Enforce".

Note: Not to be confused with the current in-use legacy app for Android only, "OPSCOM Parking Enforcement".

Troubleshooting & Info

For the Ionic App.

Troubleshooting & Info

Locate Application Version (OPSCOM Enforce App)

The OPSCOM Enforce App can be downloaded from the Apple Store or the Google Play Store.

If in doubt you can search for the "OPSCOM Enforce" app in the Google Play or Apple Store and when viewing the details of the application you will see the button that is typically labeled "Install" will instead show "Update".  This indicates that the handheld is running an older version of the application which can be updated. 

Locate the Version Details

Login Screen

Under the login box the version details and handheld identifier are clearly listed.

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(This article will be combined with a similar relevant article in the future)

Troubleshooting & Info

Testing Your WIFI Connection

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Download a WIFI Analyzer Application

This app could be installed on a cell phone and it allows you to take a measure of wifi strength and source as far as channel.
The app we recommend is a product of the company VREM Software Group and is called WifiAnalyzer (OpenSource). It's a free download on the Google Playstore.

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This app will give you a graphic representation of the signal strength. There are two screens we are interested in. One is Access Points and the other is Channel Graph. Both are available from the hamburger Icon (three parallel lines) at the top left of the app. 

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The Menu Items We Are Interested In:

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The Access Points Screen

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The Channel Graph Screen

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Help with Troubleshooting WIFI

This is something that would be great to look at throughout the day and especially when you have these drops in signal. What we are looking for is how much it goes up and down through the day.

The signal strength is shown as a  column of colour rising up from the bottom of the graph that ranges from minus 100db to minus 20db.

The smaller the number the higher the signal (keep in mind that these numbers are negative so -100 is much better than -20)

To best assist in troubleshooting, we are looking for the reading of how low the db number is for your WIFI source.

The second thing we are looking for is how many devices are on the same channel.

Too many devices trying to access on the same channel will have an adverse affect on connectivity strength.

Please provide screen captures of these items when contacting support.

Troubleshooting & Info

Replication Status - OPSCOM Enforce App

System Status

The Replication Status screen displays all database table data on your unit and whether or not the tables/data are synchronized with the server.

Status Report

Status Icons

The following icons are used to indicate status:

Note: During normal use (i.e., when issuing violations), it's expected that tables like VehicleTransfer and ViolationsTransfer may become temporarily out of sync. This indicates that new data (e.g., violations or vehicles) has been captured on your device and will need to be synced to the server.

Replication Actions

There are a number of actions that can be performed in the Replication Status area by holding down with your finger on an individual table:

PLEASE NOTE: None of these options should have to be used if your unit is working correctly. We suggest logging in and out of the application as needed for proper synchronization. Please contact OPSCOM Support if there are any issues before performing any replication status functions as detailed below.

Warning: This option will delete/drop the local table data and retrieve the newest available table data from the server. This could result in violations and/or vehicle data that hasn't yet been synchronized to the server and is still only on the local handheld from being lost. If a table is showing as out of sync never rebuild and retrieve table data unless instructed to by us.

Warning: This will delete the local table data but has no effect on the server. Similar to the above this could result in the loss of local table data if not synchronized to the server first. Never select this function unless told to by us.

Replication Options

There are additional options available in the Replication Status area accessible by selecting your devices options/menu button ( icon in the top right-hand corner):

WARNING: This will delete ALL local table data but has no effect on the server. This could result in the loss of local table data if not synchronized to the server first. Never select this function unless instructed by OPSCOM Support.

Troubleshooting & Info

Ionic - Handheld Training (Coming Soon)

Slides Presentation

(Slideshow Coming Soon)

Videos Linked in the Presentation


(New Videos Coming Soon)

Ionic - Search Vehicles

Ionic - Search Vehicles

Search Vehicles - OPSCOM Enforce App

This article explains how to use the Search Vehicles function on the OPSCOM enforcement application. This feature is the primary tool for field personnel to look up vehicle information by license plate or VIN, verify parking permit status, and initiate enforcement actions. This guide is intended for operators of OPSCOM handheld units.

Using this Feature

The Vehicle Search function is a core component of the handheld application and does not require special configuration.

Connection Status Indicator A colored dot at the top of the search panel indicates the device's connection status:

Performing a Vehicle Search

From the main menu, tap Search Vehicles.

There are three methods for entering vehicle information: text input, voice command, and the device camera (LPR/OCR).

Text Search
LPR/OCR Camera Search

Reviewing Search Results

After a successful search, the vehicle and permit details will appear below the search area. Tapping on the vehicle record expands a yellow ribbon, revealing available actions.

Available Actions & Buttons

You can also tap directly on the permit information displayed under the license plate for a quick view of its expiry details.

Best Practices & Considerations

Ionic - Search Vehicles

Search Vehicle Results - OPSCOM Enforce App

This article is a continuation of the Vehicle Search and explains how to interpret the results after looking up a vehicle. Understanding the information presented is crucial for verifying parking rights, reviewing a vehicle's history, and making informed enforcement decisions. This guide is intended for personnel using OPSCOM handheld units.

Understanding the Results Screen

After performing a search, the application presents detailed information in a multi-layered interface, starting with a summary and allowing you to access more specific details.

Results Summary

Immediately after a successful search, a list of potential plate matches is shown while a summary for the vehicles are displayed. This initial view typically shows the license plate, Province/State, and type of vehicle (passenger, commercial, etc.). 

Quick Actions

Tapping on the vehicle record in the results list expands a More Details section, revealing more information on the make, model, color of car (if available), details on the violation history, and a set of quick action buttons.

[Image showing the More Details section with action buttons]

Details

For a complete overview of a vehicle's record, tap the Details button. This screen provides an in-depth history organized into three distinct tabs, Current Permits, Violations, and Recent Chalk Records.

The Details screen is the central hub for all historical data related to a vehicle in the OPSCOM system. Reviewing the information on these tabs provides a complete picture before taking any enforcement action.

Current Permits

This tab displays a complete list of all current permits associated with the license plate. Each entry provides key information such as the permit type, its validity period (start and end dates), and the specific lots where it is valid.

Violations

This tab provides a historical log of all violations previously issued to the vehicle. For each entry, you can review the violation date, type of infraction, and its current status (e.g., paid, outstanding). 

When reviewing a vehicle’s violation details, you will see two key summary numbers at the top. These two lines serve different—but critical—purposes for understanding enforcement policies. 
1. All-Time Violations (Total Paid, Unpaid, and Warnings) - This count includes every non-spoiled violation the vehicle has ever received and will match the count in More Details on the main search results screen. This all-time total may be higher than the actual list of violations visible on the page. This is because the list is filtered by the Violation History on Handhelds setting (e.g., only the last 6 months), while this summary counts everything.

2. History Period Violations (Violations within the current window) - This count only includes violations that occurred within the date range set in System Settings > Violations > Violation History on Handhelds. Example: Your system may be set to boot a car after 5 violations. If your policy is to enforce this per year (last 12 months), this number tells you the relevant total (e.g., 3 violations in the last 12 months) even if the All-Time total is 10. This ensures officers apply policies correctly without counting ancient history.

Recent Chalk Records

This tab shows a history of all Virtual Chalking events for the vehicle. It serves as a log to track time-limit enforcement, displaying the date, time, and location of each chalking instance.

Best Practices & Considerations

Violations

Violations

Violations and Chalking

This article will discuss how to write violations, to either a person, or vehicle, and how chalking works in OPSCOM.

Violations

You can issue two (2) types of violations in OPSCOM: one is assigned to a person, the other is assigned to a vehicle, where the driver may not be known.

Chalking Violation

Chalking is a useful tool that can help quickly identify vehicles that are eligible for violations.

In order to issue virtual chalks to vehicles, which will let you know if a vehicle has moved since the last chalk, and how long ago it was chalked, making writing provable violations easy to do, without physically chalking cars.

If you would like to understand the purpose of virtual chalking more, see this article!

Person Violation

To issue a Person Violation, open the handheld app and log in to an account.

This must be done by a system administrator. If you need help with this step on the admin side, see this article.

You will need to know the person's name, and that they are registered as a user in our system to issue a person violation.

Vehicle Violation

To issue a vehicle violation, go back to the main screen, and tap on Vehicle Search.

In the search field, you can enter a known plate, or a plate that has never been entered before, and this plate will automatically be added to the vehicle data.

Searching a plate can bring a variety of result types:

This chart provides a reference for symbols and sounds you'll see returned from search:

Icon

Audio Notification

When/Why Is This Combo Used?
Black Cross None

Plate is not found in database. Tap to add new vehicle.

Red X (with Red permit pill)

 None

Plate found in database, but no valid/active permit or partially valid (prior to chalking) or plate was chalked (manually or by LPR), grace period is expired, but still no valid permit. Eligible for violation/ticket

Green Check (with Green permit pill)

Bing (LPR)

Plate found in database, with at least one valid and active permit or plate was chalked, but a valid permit was added later.

Green Check (with Red dot)

 None

Plate found in database, has permit(s) but vehicle is NOT active. (Rare) 

Notification (Red !)

 None

Plate has a specific warning for Do Not Ticket or Tow (DNTT)

Notification (Blue !) (with Blue permit pill)

 None

Plate found in database, has a permit that is valid but is parked in the wrong lot/zone.

Chalk (Map)

Swoosh (LPR)

Plate has been chalked (manually or by LPR), grace period not expired

Flag

Buzz

Indicates that there has been an alert triggered on either a person or a vehicle.

In the below picture, we search for the plate TOMA92, and get a Map and Pencil icon, indicating a past chalk, and we can see the vehicle is 11 minutes over the 15 minute grace period, without a valid permit. This vehicle is eligible for a violation.

To issue a violation to the vehicle that over stayed the grace period, tap the Violation button after searching the vehicle plate. You will need to enter ticket type, offence location, and the offence reason,  or reasons if multiple apply, just like with a person violation. After entering the ticket information, you will need to enter more vehicle information, such as province/state, and plate type (Passenger/Commercial/Government), and enter any other known information about the vehicle. This time, only a vehicle is required, if the driver identity is not known. Go to the people tab, and tap on the toggle for Failed To Identify. If the identity is known, enter it like normal.

You can now add files, such as photo or video evidence, and private (internal staff only) or public comments (user visible). When you are done, tap save to issue this violation.

Explanation of the Front of the Ticket/Warning

Ticket Number This is a system assigned number that identifies each individual violation/warning.
Date This is the date that the violation/warning was issued on.
Ticket Type This identifies the type of violation that occurred (broad range category).
License Plate This is the license plate number for the vehicle that incurred the violation.
Province This is the province that the license plate is issued in.
Offense Type This identifies the specific violation that occurred.
Location This identifies the location where the violation occurred.
Writer This is a system assigned number that identifies the enforcement officer that issued the violation. Each enforcement officer has their own unique number and can be verified by administrators. The writer is identified by a unique identifier to provide security to the enforcement officer. If you require more information about the ticket writer you can search the violation on the admin side and get an actual name for the person who wrote the ticket.
Fine This is the amount owed for the particular violation. Note, on the warning ticket the amount is followed by "*Warning". This indicates that the amount on the ticket is not owing, but this is the amount that would be due if a ticket for the same violation was issued.
Towing This is the amount due if the vehicle that incurred the violation had to be towed.
Comments This section includes any additional notes that the enforcement officer wants to include.

Explanation of the Back of the Ticket/Warning

The back of the ticket provides details about the organization that issued the ticket and the policies and procedures regarding the ticket. The back clearly identifies how the violator can pay or appeal the ticket with a section for the violator to identify themselves and sign off on the ticket. The back also identifies where to find additional information on the organization and the office hours.

Virtual Chalking Explanation

What is E-Chalking (Virtual Chalking) in OPSCOM?

  • Virtual chalking, or e-chalking is an electronic process that mirrors how an officer would manually chalk a vehicle's tire, in order to see how long they have been parked. 
  • Virtual chalking creates a Time-Stamped image, of both the license plate & the entire car, in order to track how long they've been parked
  • Virtual chalking provides an image that can be attached to the violation and is acceptable in a court-of-law, provided the date/time stamp is visible & clear.  The chalked image is part of the violation, unless the patrol officer deletes the image. 
  • When LPR software is capturing plates, officers can simply click "Virtual Chalk"  to create/save the image 

Why "Chalk" a Vehicle?

There are some situations where chalking is very useful, for example; If a vehicle is parked and the owner is going to purchase a permit, there can be a grace period to allow the client to obtain the permit and return to the vehicle to display the permit. Alternately, in areas where parking is provided on a timed basis where a vehicle can park free for 2 hours, the officer can virtually chalk the vehicle on a first pass earlier in the day and then be able to check the vehicle later in the day to determine if it has been parked longer than the permitted time frame.

Chalking vehicles manually is time consuming, so being able to virtually-chalk vehicles makes a time-efficient solution for a necessary aspect of parking management.

Chalk records stored with a violation help when dealing with Appeals as a time-stamped image is available as "proof" of the infraction.

For a guide on how to "Chalk" a vehicle on the handhelds, click here

NOTE: 

Chalking  can be done in a couple of ways. If you are photographing the plate to read it through character recognition the system automatically captures a close up image of the plate as well as a contextual image of the full back of the vehicle. Both are time stamped. 

If you enter in a plate via text or voice when chalking you will want to take a contextual image so that you record the time stamp.

The same is true when you actually capture the plate a second time and then issue a violation. It's advisable to take a couple images at least, plus you have the time on the ticket that the violation was written so using both methods (timestamp and time on printed ticket) you can calculate the time the vehicle was parked.  There is no limit as to how many images you can take.

Plate Capture using Hand Held

OPSCOM supports optical character recognition of plates, which allows you to search plates using the camera on your device. 

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Open the Vehicle Search page in the Ionic handheld app, and tap the camera icon instead of typing. Make sure to allow access to the devices camera, a notification will pop up asking about this. Once allowed, the camera opens with a green box in the middle of the screen, this box is where the license plate will go in the camera's field of view. Once the plate and box are lined up, tap and hold the screen for 3 seconds to save the read.

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In the below picture, the camera captured the text at the top of the plate, in this case the state, Indiana.

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 Try again, but get only the plate number in the picture. See the picture below, where the read is successful.

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Reprint Violation

Reprinting Tickets

Tap on the second option in the main menu for Reprint Violation.

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This will take you to the Reprint Violation Notice screen. Tap on the violation that you want to reprint and follow the printer instructions.

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Printers & Printing

Printers & Printing

Star Micronics Printer Configuration

The Star Micronics Printer Configuration allows administrators to connect mobile printers to Android or iOS devices for use with the OPSCOM Enforce app. This setup enables enforcement officers to print tickets directly from their handheld devices, streamlining the violation issuance process.

Setup and Configuration

Before using the printer with the OPSCOM Enforce app, the hardware must be paired with the handheld device and set to the correct emulation mode.

The Star Micronics T300i or higher is recommended, as older models may not be fully supported.

Changing Printer Emulation

Emulation determines how the printer communicates with the operating system. The printer must be set to the specific mode required by your device type.

  1. Open the paper cover of the printer.

  2. Press and hold the POWER and FEED buttons simultaneously.

  3. Release the buttons once the red error lamp flashes 5 times and the screen indicates Setup Mode.

  4. Close the paper cover.

  5. Review the status slip that automatically prints:

    • For Android: The slip must display Emulation = ESC/POS.

    • For iOS: The slip must display Emulation = StarPRNT.

  6. Repeat these steps if the status slip does not show the correct emulation for your device.

Bluetooth Pairing

  1. Power on the Star Micronics printer.

  2. Navigate to Settings then Bluetooth on the handheld device.

  3. Ensure the Bluetooth toggle is enabled.

  4. Select the Star Micronics printer from the list of available devices.

  5. Enter the PIN to pair the device.

Using this Feature

Once the hardware is paired and configured, it must be linked within the application settings to enable printing functionality.

Connecting in the Enforce App

  1. Open the OPSCOM Enforce app and log in.

  2. Tap the Menu icon at the top left of the screen.

  3. Tap App Settings.

  4. Scroll to the Printer Settings section.

  5. Tap the Printer Driver drop-down menu and choose Star Micronics.

  6. Tap Saved Bluetooth Printer to initiate a scan for nearby hardware.

  7. Tap the printer name (typically SM-T300) or the specific serial number from the scanned list.

  8. Tap the Emulation drop-down menu and select the mode matching your device:

    • Select StarPRNT for iOS devices.

    • Select EscPosMobile for Android devices.

  9. Tap the Menu button and tap Home to return to the main screen.

The Enforce app interface may vary slightly between Android and iOS versions, but the printer configuration logic remains consistent across both platforms.

Best Practices and Considerations

Printers & Printing

Zebra Printer Configuration

The Zebra Printer Configuration allows administrators to set up and connect Zebra mobile printers to Android or iOS devices for use with the OPSCOM Enforce app. This integration streamlines parking operations by enabling the direct printing of violation tickets from handheld units.

Setup and Configuration

Configuring a Zebra printer requires a one-time setup involving the official Zebra utility and the Enforce application to ensure consistent communication between the hardware and software.

Printer Discovery and Utility Setup

  1. Power on the Zebra printer.

  2. Uninstall and re-install the OPSCOM Enforce app on your handheld device to ensure a clean configuration environment.

  3. Download and install the Zebra Printer Setup Utility from the app store.

  4. Open the Zebra Printer Setup Utility.

  5. Tap Discover Printers.

  6. Tap and hold the Feed button on the physical printer until the Bluetooth symbol appears on the printer display, then release.

  7. Tap the printer once it appears in the Discovered list.

  8. Wait for the utility to retrieve settings; the printer is ready when the status displays Ready at the top of the screen.

Connectivity and Media Settings

  1. Tap Connectivity Settings then tap Bluetooth.

  2. Confirm that the Bluetooth and Discoverable switches are enabled.

  3. Verify the Friendly Name (defaults to the serial number) and tap Next.

  4. Tap Next on the second screen to keep default settings, then tap Apply.

  5. Tap Media Settings and tap Media Settings again on the following page.

  6. Follow the prompts to set the correct paper size for your rolls and tap Apply.

  7. Tap Print a Test Label from the main Media Settings page to verify the hardware configuration.

Using this Feature

After the printer is configured in the Zebra utility, it must be linked to the Enforce app to be used for ticketing.

Connecting in the Enforce App

  1. Open the OPSCOM Enforce app and log in.

  2. Tap the Menu icon at the top left and tap App Settings.

  3. Scroll to the Printer Settings section.

  4. Tap the Printer Driver drop-down menu and choose Zebra.

  5. Tap Saved Bluetooth Printer to scan for the device.

  6. Tap your printer name or serial number when it appears in the list.

  7. Tap Save when prompted with Save Printer?.

  8. Tap the Menu icon and tap Home to begin using the application.

Best Practices and Considerations

Ensure the printer remains powered on and within close proximity to the handheld device during the "Applying Settings" phase to avoid corrupting the printer firmware.