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GlossaryDispatch and call records

Dispatch narrative

A dispatch narrative contains notes entered as a request develops. Learn how to distinguish reported information, later updates, and a completed investigative report.

A dispatch narrative is text entered into a communications record while a request is received and handled. Often called CAD notes, it can include a caller's description, clarifying information, dispatcher updates, and messages from responders. It records information available during operations, including information that may be incomplete, uncertain, or later corrected.

Reading a sequence of notes

A narrative often develops one entry at a time. A later line may qualify an earlier description rather than replace it. The BJA-supported CAD specifications provide for narrative updates as information becomes available. BJA/LEITSC CAD specifications

Read each statement with its source and time. “Caller reports” identifies an account received by staff. “Unit advises” attributes information to field personnel. Those phrases do useful work: removing them can turn a report of a concern into an apparent official finding.

Abbreviations and short phrases are common in operational writing. A shorthand entry should be interpreted with the agency's terminology rather than a general internet list. The text may also contain personal information that is withheld or obscured in a public release.

Example

Hypothetical example: A 6:02 p.m. entry says, “Caller reports water entering basement; source unknown.” At 6:07, a unit advises that a broken exterior pipe is flooding the area. A 6:12 update notes that the utility has been contacted.

Read together, the entries show an initial report, a later observation, and a referral. Quoting only “source unknown” as the final explanation would omit relevant information. Describing the caller as having confirmed a broken pipe would assign knowledge the caller's entry did not contain.

Common confusion

A dispatch narrative is not necessarily a word-for-word transcript of a call. It is also different from a completed incident report, which can organize facts, observations, and follow-up in a separate reporting process.

Copying notes into another system does not make them a verified final narrative. In historical fire-reporting guidance, the U.S. Fire Administration warns that automatically imported CAD notes may include irrelevant material or personally identifiable information. That illustrates a records-quality issue, rather than a current reporting rule for every system. USFA CAD integration guidance

Checking the record's limits

Identify whether the release includes all notes, selected entries, or only the most recent description. Entry time and the time of the described event can differ. Gaps, redactions, or an omitted later report limit what the visible narrative can establish.

Sources