This topic provides orientation on managing calls in the Manage Calls section.
Calls are incidents registered in the system that may require monitoring or direct action from emergency service agencies, such as natural disasters, robberies, and vehicle collisions that require action from the police and ambulances to be dispatched. In this section, users with the appropriate permissions in the system may register, edit, and associate calls, and generate occurrences for them. As calls may be registered as a result of a prank or not need assistance from service units, only those that effectively need units to be dispatched become occurrences.
A call becomes an occurrence after you send a dispatch request to a dispatch BPM, which corresponds to a group of people registered in the Organization module. This group can then handle the dispatch of units to the incident location. Keep in mind that in this section you will be able to view and manage both calls and occurrences. However, dispatch requests can only be managed in the Manage Dispatches section. For more information, see Chapter 13: Dispatch -> Manage Dispatches.
Additional features that are common to this section and the Manage Dispatches and Monitoring sections are also available. These features include viewing reports and associating calls and occurrences. The documentation on these common features is grouped under Chapter 13: Dispatch -> Common Features in the Map for the Dispatch Solution.
A feature is also available to generate an alert whenever a person or a vehicle involved in a call is included in a blacklist, allowing those with pending legal issues or criminal records, for example, to be identified. For more information on how to configure the blacklist, see Appendix -> Configurations for the Blacklist -> How to Register a Blacklist for People and Vehicles Involved in Calls.
Before calls can be created, some customizations may be necessary. These include the registration of call categories, origins, and operating procedures applicable to each category, among others. For more information, view Chapter 13: Dispatch -> Customizations for the Dispatch Solution.
The diagram below illustrates the workflow for managing calls (see figure below).
When a call is received through a telecommunications system integrated with the solution, the window to register a call is opened automatically. Alternatively, the operator can manually open the window for registering calls. After entering the call properties, you can choose to generate an occurrence for the call, or simply save a protocol number for the incident. If the option to generate an occurrence is selected, the call status is set to "Call Being Registered". A dispatch can then be requested from a BPM or you can return to the main form to edit the call, in which case both options will become available again. If, instead, you opted to generate a protocol for the call, its status becomes "Completed Without Assistance".
When a dispatch is requested, the call becomes an occurrence with the "With Dispatcher" status and the BPM selected receives the request. From this point on, the occurrence is managed in the Manage Dispatches section. To view more information on the workflow for managing occurrences and dispatches, see Chapter 13: Dispatch -> Manage Dispatches.