Overview#
When a patrol unit crosses into a blind spot or a paramedic crew goes silent mid-route, dispatchers need to know the last confirmed position and projected trajectory without waiting for a manual check-in. The Continuous Background Location Tracking module keeps every mobile responder's position streaming to the command map in real time, whether the application is in the foreground, minimised, or running on a locked screen.
The module is designed for the realities of operational fieldwork: intermittent mobile coverage, battery-constrained devices, and responders who cannot interact with their handset mid-task. Telemetry is adaptive, privacy-aware, and resilient to connectivity interruptions, providing an unbroken location history from the moment a shift begins to the moment it ends.
Key Features#
- Adaptive Ping Frequency: Transmission intervals are automatically adjusted based on movement speed, battery level, and current incident status, reducing unnecessary radio and CPU overhead during stationary standby.
- Persistent Background Execution: The service hooks into native OS background-location APIs (iOS CoreLocation significant-change and standard-location modes; Android FusedLocationProvider with foreground-service notification) to survive aggressive battery management policies.
- Offline Trajectory Caching: When mobile coverage drops, position fixes are stored locally in an encrypted on-device queue and flushed as an ordered burst upon reconnection, ensuring no gaps in the recorded route.
- Privacy and Off-Duty Controls: Responders can activate an Off Duty toggle that immediately suspends all telemetry. Supervisors are shown only a duty-status indicator rather than a last-known position, protecting personal privacy outside working hours.
- Geofence Alerting: Configurable boundary zones can trigger automatic notifications when a unit enters or exits a defined area, such as a cordon perimeter or a no-go zone during a public-order event.
- Heading and Speed Telemetry: Beyond latitude and longitude, each position fix carries bearing and ground speed, enabling the command map to render directional unit icons and predict arrival times.
- Multi-Constellation GNSS Support: The module accepts fixes from GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou constellations as exposed by the host operating system, improving accuracy in urban canyons.
- Tamper-Evident Audit Trail: Every transmitted position point is timestamped and integrity-protected so that route histories used in post-incident review cannot be silently altered.
Use Cases#
- Nearest-Unit Dispatch: PSAP operators see the real-time position of all on-duty field units and can dispatch the closest available responder to an incident with confidence.
- Cordon and Perimeter Management: During a major incident, commanders verify that units are correctly positioned around a perimeter and receive an alert if any unit crosses a boundary unexpectedly.
- Post-Incident Route Review: After a pursuit or prolonged response, investigators replay the exact trajectory taken by each unit to assess decision-making and inform future training.
- Welfare Checks: If a lone worker's device stops transmitting for longer than a configurable threshold, a welfare alert is raised automatically, triggering a check-in request.
- Search and Rescue Coordination: In remote or degraded-communication environments, cached tracks are recovered on reconnection to reconstruct the full search pattern and identify uncovered areas.
- Evidence Preservation: Timestamped and integrity-protected location histories provide auditable evidence for misconduct investigations or legal proceedings.
Integration#
The module integrates with the platform's Common Operating Picture over an encrypted WebSocket channel, feeding live position updates directly into the dispatch board and the shared tactical map. On the device side, it registers with iOS CoreLocation and Android FusedLocationProvider using the minimum permission scope required for background operation. Positions are published using a standardised geospatial event format compatible with the platform's broader situational-awareness pipeline, allowing downstream components such as incident management, resource allocation, and reporting to consume unit locations without bespoke adapters.
Open Standards#
- OGC GeoPackage (OGC 12-128r18): On-device trajectory caches are stored in a format compatible with OGC GeoPackage, enabling interoperability with GIS tooling during post-incident export.
- GeoJSON (RFC 7946): Position events are serialised as GeoJSON Feature objects, ensuring compatibility with any standards-compliant mapping client or data exchange partner.
- OGC Moving Features (OGC 14-083r2): Trajectory replay and route-history queries align with the OGC Moving Features standard for representing objects that change position over time.
- ETSI TS 103 723 (MCData): Off-duty status signalling and duty-state transitions follow Mission-Critical Data conventions for presence and availability management.
- ETSI TS 103 869 (MCX common): Location reporting intervals and prioritisation logic are consistent with ETSI Mission-Critical communications recommendations for location services.
- NENA i3 / NG-911 (NENA-STA-010): Unit location records are formatted for compatibility with the NENA i3 Additional Data repository structure used by Next-Generation 911 call-handling systems.
- W3C Geolocation API (W3C Recommendation): On-device position acquisition follows the W3C Geolocation API model where the native OS abstraction layer exposes it, ensuring consistent coordinate reference system usage (WGS 84).
- ISO/IEC 27001: Information security management controls govern key management, access control, and audit logging for the telemetry ingestion pipeline.
Availability#
- Enterprise Plan: Included
- Professional Plan: Available with a maximum of 25 concurrently tracked devices; geofence alerting and tamper-evident audit trail require upgrade to Enterprise.
Last Reviewed: 2026-05-26