Configuring Incidents

The Incident Configuration feature provides the foundational settings required before your organization can effectively utilize the incident management module. Its primary purpose is to allow administrators to define standardized categories, identification flags, and descriptive drop-down lists, ensuring consistent data entry across all incident reports. This article is intended for OPS-COM administrators responsible for system setup and maintenance.

Setup and Configuration

Before dispatchers and officers can begin logging events, administrators must pre-configure several standardized data lists.

Navigate to your incident configuration settings to establish the parameters for the following modules.

Configuration Categories

• Categories: Define the primary types of incidents that occur on your property. Each main category (e.g., Break and Enter) can host multiple sub-categories to allow for precise classification during reporting.

• Flags: Create custom tags to highlight critical information or flag the severity of an incident (e.g., violence involved, weapons involved). Detailed setup instructions can be found on the Incident Flags page.

• Ethnicity: Populate a standardized drop-down list of ethnic descriptors to assist officers in identifying individuals related to an incident, whether they are a victim, suspect, or witness.

• Relations: Define the exact terminology used to describe an individual's relationship or involvement with a specific incident (e.g., Complainant, Witness, Victim, Prime Suspect).

• Ext. User Profile Options: Create extended value fields used for describing the physical characteristics of an individual involved in an incident (e.g., hair color, hair style, body build type, clothing style).

• Missing Property Types: Build targeted pick lists that officers can use to describe property involved, damaged, or stolen during an incident (e.g., vehicles, jewelry, computers, electronics, money).

• Cameras: Configure the required input settings for any integrated surveillance cameras that may capture footage of an incident on your property.

The descriptive data entered into the Ext. User Profile Options fields will only be visible within the incidents module to assist with investigations. These specific physical descriptions will not appear on a user's standard parking or general system profile.

Best Practices and Considerations

• Standardize your categories: Organizations should establish a clear business rule for incident categorization prior to system launch. Creating too many overlapping sub-categories can confuse dispatchers, lead to inconsistent data entry, and skew your statistical summary reports.

• Keep descriptors objective: Ensure that all options configured under Ext. User Profile Options and Ethnicity rely on professional and objective terminology. This ensures your organization maintains compliance and accuracy when standardizing suspect and witness descriptions for legal or investigative use.