Our department gets dispatched via a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system. That system generates unique identifiers and when we are looking up an incident we use that identifier.
D4H allows the user to utilize the system generated identifier, or (although it is hidden behind a ‘magic’ – and confusing to our membership – click on the system identifier text) enter a user entered identifier.
We enter our CAD number as that identifier, but we’ve learned to work around some aspects…
Our CAD numbers start over each year, they are only unique within a year. January 1st the first CAD of a year would be 000001, again.
Also, D4H search is prefix loaded so we:
- We prefix our CAD # with zeros to 6 digits. This way we can search of CAD #11 without CAD #111 and CAD #1111 getting in the way.
- We postfix our CAD # with “CAD” and 4 digit year to make it unique.
Here is our design for a unique identifier:
[Zero Padded CAD#]”CAD”[4 Digit Year]
Examples would give:
000001CAD2019, 000002CAD2019, 123456CAD2019
If we ever need to add an “incident credit” or “add on” incident to the CAD we might add a letter, e.g. 000001CAD2019A and so on. If we ever need something added but not through CAD we use the system generated identifier.
This design allows us unique identifiers we can access easily through search.
Neukadye 