Contact

GlossaryDispatch and call records

Dispatched call

A dispatched call is a request or event assigned to response resources. Learn why dispatch totals differ from incoming 911 calls and confirmed incidents.

A dispatched call is a recorded request or event for which a response resource has been assigned. The phrase commonly appears in calls-for-service datasets. It describes an operational action, rather than a confirmed crime or completed response. Some datasets also include officer-initiated activity, so a dispatched-call total may not represent telephone calls from the public.

The assignment is the key event

A call can be received and recorded without a unit being dispatched. A request might instead be answered with information, directed to another reporting channel, or transferred to another jurisdiction. A dispatch-only release therefore describes a subset of communications activity.

San Diego's public dataset specifically covers calls dispatched by its police communications center. Its stated scope does not make it a complete register of every request for police help. San Diego calls-for-service dataset

The next question is what one row represents. An incident-level dataset can show one record despite several assigned resources. A unit-level dataset can show a separate row for each resource. Counting rows before identifying that structure can produce a misleading total.

Example

Hypothetical example: Three motorists call about the same road obstruction. The center associates their reports with one dispatch event and assigns two units. Both units later clear the assignment.

Under an incident-level counting method, this is one dispatched call, three incoming reports, and two unit assignments. These numbers describe different parts of the work. The example's counting method is explicit; another agency's export may be organized differently.

A later cancellation would not necessarily remove the original assignment from the dispatch history. Whether the record remains in a published total depends on the dataset's inclusion rules.

Common confusion

Received means a communication arrived. Dispatched means a resource was assigned. Arrived means a later response milestone was recorded. None of these words can replace the others in a response-time calculation.

A dispatched call is not automatically a written incident report. It also cannot establish the number of offenses, arrests, patients, or people needing assistance. One dispatch can involve several people, and an online crime report can exist without a dispatch.

Understanding a published count

Identify the reporting period, event identifier, row structure, and treatment of duplicates. Check whether canceled assignments, officer-initiated activity, and sensitive incidents are included. San Diego explicitly excludes some sensitive incident categories from its public release, illustrating why publication coverage must be read before interpreting apparent absence.

Sources