PSAP Resource Tracking

Overview#

It is 11:30 p.m. on a Friday. A rollover accident on the interstate needs an advanced life support unit, a tow with winch capability, and a fire engine within eight minutes. The nearest ALS unit is already on a call. The second-nearest is in the county to the north, covered under a mutual aid agreement. The dispatcher has about fifteen seconds to make that decision. The Resource Tracking module makes it in under one.

The module provides real-time unit management and AI-powered dispatch optimisation for emergency communications centres. Dozens of factors, including location, availability, certifications, equipment, workload, and predicted demand patterns, are analysed together to recommend the best unit for each incident. Supervisors get full visibility into unit status, performance, and coverage across the entire service area.

Key Features#

• AI-Powered Dispatch Recommendations: Analyses distance, traffic conditions, unit availability, certifications, equipment, workload balance, and coverage impact to identify the optimal unit for every incident
• Real-Time Unit Status Management: Tracks unit availability across all status types from available and enroute to on-scene and out-of-service, with automatic status updates based on incident completion and coverage return
• Dynamic Resource Positioning: Predictive analytics forecast demand patterns by time of day, day of week, season, and special events, automatically recommending unit repositioning to optimise coverage and minimise response times
• Capability Matching: Matches incident requirements to unit qualifications including specialized equipment (K-9, SWAT, Hazmat, dive), language skills, mental health crisis training, accessibility equipment, and rescue capabilities
• Coverage Analysis: Continuously monitors remaining coverage in each dispatch area after unit assignments, considering alternative unit availability, predicted call volume, and historical hotspot data
• Workload Balancing: Distributes calls equitably across units using rotation rules, fair distribution algorithms, and fatigue factors such as time since last dispatch, shift end proximity, and daily call volume
• Mutual Aid Coordination: Manages cross-jurisdiction resource sharing with automatic aid agreements, contract service obligations, and neighbouring jurisdiction availability tracking
• Performance Analytics: Tracks key performance indicators including call processing time, turnout time, travel time, and utilization rates with supervisor dashboards showing real-time and historical performance data
• Multi-Unit Incident Coordination: Manages complex incidents requiring multiple units from different disciplines with supervisor proximity tracking, backup unit identification, and cross-agency coordination

Use Cases#

• Optimising unit dispatch for emergency incidents by analysing location, capabilities, availability, and coverage impact to recommend the best assignment while maintaining area-wide response readiness
• Predictive deployment positioning that places units in high-demand areas before incidents occur based on historical patterns, time-of-day demand curves, and special event staffing models
• Beat optimisation balancing workload distribution across patrol areas using call rotation rules, fair distribution algorithms, and real-time workload monitoring
• Special event staffing using forecasting models to determine resource needs based on historical data, event characteristics, and predicted demand patterns
• Mutual aid management for island and remote emergency services where cross-jurisdiction resource sharing is a routine operational necessity

Integration#

The module connects with CAD systems, telephony infrastructure, mapping and routing engines, mobile field applications, and mutual aid partner systems to provide a comprehensive real-time operating picture for dispatch supervisors and commanders.

Open Standards#

• NENA-STA-021 (Emergency Incident Data Object, EIDO): Unit status, dispatch notifications, and resource assignments are exchanged as EIDO-compliant JSON messages through the CAD connector, keeping the resource picture synchronised across NG9-1-1-capable systems.
• OGC SensorThings API: Each vehicle or unit is registered as a SensorThings Thing; real-time AVL position fixes are published as Observation records, providing a standards-based live common operating picture for supervisors.
• NENA-STA-006.3 (NG9-1-1 GIS Data Model): Dispatch zone boundaries, service area geometries, and coverage polygons are stored and provisioned in accordance with the NENA GIS data model, enabling accurate coverage-gap analysis after unit assignments.
• NMEA 0183: GPS position sentences from vehicle AVL units are parsed by the NMEA-0183 ingester to derive location, heading, and speed for real-time unit tracking.
• SAE J2540 / SAE J1939: CAN-bus telemetry frames from fleet vehicles are decoded using the J2540 navigation messages and J1939 vehicle-application-layer PGNs to extract position and velocity as AVL observations.
• STANAG 4676 (NATO Track Data Standard): Track messages from partner agencies and military assets can be ingested and exported in STANAG 4676 JSON/XML format, supporting multi-agency resource visibility during large-scale or cross-jurisdiction incidents.
• GeoJSON (RFC 7946): Coverage areas, routing geometries, and zone boundaries are encoded as GeoJSON throughout the dispatch and prepositioning logic, enabling interoperability with mapping engines and external GIS tooling.

Last Reviewed: 2026-02-04 Last Updated: 2026-04-14