Connect Active911: From Page to NERIS Report

Your department already gets toned out through Active911. Connect it to Command Established and that same alert starts the incident report: the call number, address, map location, call type, and dispatch time are filled in before the first truck is back in quarters.

Active911 pages you. Command Established picks up the call from there, keeps the incident current as more information arrives, and carries it through to a finished report that you submit to NERIS.

A Call, Start to Finish

Here's what happens to a single call once Active911 is connected.

1. The page goes out

Your dispatch center sends the call to Active911, and Active911 alerts your members' phones and pagers the way it always has. At the same moment, Active911 sends a copy of the alert to Command Established.

2. The incident starts itself

Command Established reads the alert and creates an incident with:

• Incident number: the CAD call number from the alert
• Call type: the call description, exactly as dispatch sent it (for example 1050 or STRUCTURE FIRE)
• Location: the street address, city, and state, plus the map pin Active911 placed on the call
• Dispatch time: when the alert went out
• Narrative: a starting draft from the dispatcher's details, along with the cross street, priority, and units when the alert includes them

Command Established fills in the ZIP code from the address. The original alert is attached to the incident's Files tab as an Active911 Alert, so the source is always one click away.

Members get the same new-incident notification they'd get from a CAD email, so everyone knows the report is open.

3. It stays current

Calls change after the first page. If Active911 sends another alert for the same call number, Command Established updates the incident you already have instead of creating a second one. New information from dispatch is added as it arrives. A narrative your crew has written and a NERIS incident type your officer has chosen are never replaced by a later alert. If dispatch moves the call to a different street, the incident's address moves with it.

If your department also receives CAD emails, the two work together. When a CAD email and an Active911 alert carry the same call number, they land on the same incident, and each fills in what the other left blank.

4. Your crew finishes the report

Active911 doesn't tell Command Established when a call is over, so someone on your crew closes it. See Closing a Call. The incident is already waiting with the dispatch facts in place. Your officer adds what only the crew knows: the responding apparatus and personnel, their times, what they found, and what they did. If you've connected an Active911 API token, the Resources tab also lists who responded in Active911, so the officer can add them in a click. See See Who Responded. Choose the incident's NERIS incident type on the Basic Info tab. Active911's call codes vary from one dispatch center to the next, so the type is left for the officer to pick.

The NERIS Incident Reporting guide walks through each tab.

5. Submit to NERIS

Open the NERIS tab. It checks the incident as you work and lists anything NERIS still needs. When the list is clear, submit. Active911 dispatched the call, and Command Established submits the report.

If your department isn't set up for NERIS yet, start with Enroll in NERIS.

Requirements

• You must be a department admin to connect Active911.
• The Incidents module must be turned on for your department. Alerts are received and listed either way, but incidents are only created while the module is on. Check this under Settings > Modules.
• You need access to your agency's settings in Active911, or someone who does.

Step 1: Create a Webhook URL

1. Go to Settings in your department.
2. Select the CAD tab.
3. Under Active911, click Create webhook URL.
4. Click the copy icon next to the new URL.

Important: Keep this URL private. Anyone who has it can create incidents in your department.

You can have up to 2 URLs at a time, so you can switch to a new one without missing a call: create the new URL, add it in Active911, then revoke the old one.

Step 2: Add It in Active911

1. In Active911, open Agency and scroll to Integrations.
2. Choose Add New Integration.
3. Pick the type other and paste the URL you copied.

Any integrations you already have in Active911 keep working alongside this one.

Step 3: Watch the Next Alert Arrive

Back on the CAD settings tab, Recent dispatch messages lists everything your department has received from Active911 and from CAD email, newest first. The Source column shows where each message came from.

When your next alert arrives, its row shows a View incident link to the incident it created. Click the row to see the full alert exactly as Active911 sent it.

Every alert is listed for 30 days, including ones that didn't become an incident. Those show the reason instead of a link.

See Who Responded

The webhook tells Command Established about the call, but not who responded to it. To see that too, connect an Active911 API token. Command Established then reads the buttons your members tap in Active911, such as responding to the station or not available, and lists them on each incident for an officer to add.

This is optional. Without a token, alerts still create incidents as described above.

Connect an API token

1. On the CAD settings tab, find Active911 API access.
2. Open How to get an API token and follow the steps. In Active911, leave Read Agency, Read Alerts, Read Responses, and Read Devices ticked, and untick Read Map Data and Write Map Data.
3. Paste the refresh token and click Connect. Command Established checks it with Active911 and shows Connected to your agency.

Paste the token yourself rather than emailing it to anyone. It's stored encrypted, and only its last four characters are shown again. To stop, click Remove, and also delete the token in Active911.

Say what each button means

Every department labels its own Active911 buttons, so Command Established doesn't guess what they mean. Under Active911 response codes on the CAD settings tab, each button appears after members first use it. Set each one to:

• Responding: the member is coming. They're suggested on the incident.
• Not available: the member can't come.
• Ignore: the button doesn't say whether the member is coming, so it doesn't change where they stand.

Until a button is set, members who tap it aren't suggested.

Add responders on the incident

On an incident that Active911 started, the Active911 responses panel at the bottom of the Resources tab lists:

• Responding: members whose latest button means Responding, in the order they responded, with the button they tapped and when. If someone changed their answer, both buttons show.
• Collapsed below: members who tapped a button that isn't set up yet, Not available, and Viewed only (members who opened the alert without responding).

Nothing is added to the incident automatically. Active911 knows someone tapped "responding to station", not which apparatus they ended up on, and where a member goes on the Resources tab drives call credit, response times, and NERIS. So an officer chooses:

• Add on a member's row puts them on the call as a station responder, on an apparatus already on the call, or in a Personal vehicle (POV).
• Add N as station responders adds everyone listed who isn't on the call yet. If your department has more than one station, pick which one.

Members already on the incident show On incident.

Command Established matches each Active911 device to a member by name. A device matches only when its name points to exactly one member, so a shared device like "Station 1 iPad" or two members with the same name stay unmatched. Add those people by hand as usual.

Responses keep updating for 6 hours after the latest alert: every 2 minutes for the first hour, then every 15 minutes. Click Refresh to read Active911 right away.

Closing a Call

Active911 tells Command Established when a call goes out. It doesn't send anything when the call is over, so a call that started from an Active911 alert stays open until someone closes it. You'll notice this most on calls your department didn't respond to, because nobody opens the report afterward.

To close a call:

1. Open Responding and find the call.
2. Select Close call, on the call's card or on the call's own page.
3. Check the Completed time. It starts at the current time, so change it if the call ended earlier.
4. Select Close call.

The call leaves the Responding list and the incident gets its Completed time. The report itself stays open, so your officer can still finish it and submit it to NERIS. Setting Completed on the incident's Basic Info tab does the same thing.

Close call appears for members who can edit the incident. A call that has been open for a long time is marked Possibly left open as a reminder to close it.

A call nobody has touched for a couple of days drops off the Responding list by itself, but the incident still has no Completed time. To close one of those, open it from Incidents and set Completed on the Basic Info tab.

If your department also receives CAD emails, a completed-call email from dispatch closes the call for you. See CAD Email Integration.

For a call you were toned for and couldn't make, check whether your state wants it reported to NERIS at all. Dispatched but Nobody Responded covers both cases.

Test Pages

Many departments send a test page from the Active911 console now and then. When an alert's call type or details say only "Test", "Pager test", "Test page", "Radio test", or "System test", Command Established records it and archives it right away. It never shows up in your incident list, and nobody gets a new-incident notification for it.

An alert that mentions a test as part of a real call (for example "Testing smoke alarm, 123 Main St") is treated as a normal call.

If a real call was archived by mistake, an admin can restore it from the Activity Log using Unarchive. If a test slipped through as an incident, archive it from the incident's menu.

Alerts Sent From the Active911 Console

Alerts your officers send by hand from the Active911 console are handled like dispatch alerts. They usually don't have a CAD call number, so each one becomes its own incident, and a later CAD email for the same call may not be matched to it automatically.

Troubleshooting

Need Help Getting Set Up?

If you'd like a hand connecting Active911, reach out to our support team. We're happy to walk you through it.