December 19, 2024 by Amanda Roche

How to Elevate Tactical Planning and Response with CommandCentral Aware [6 Examples]

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Industries: 9-1-1 & Law Enforcement

Topics: Command Center Software Intelligence-Led Policing Public Safety Applications Situational Awareness SaaS

Tired of whiteboards and basic maps for tactical planning? Discover six powerful ways to use CommandCentral Aware for pre-event planning and real-time response during incidents.

Elevate Tactical Planning and Response with the CommandCentral Aware Markups Tool

Are you still relying on outdated methods for tactical planning? Whiteboards and basic mapping solutions can only take you so far. CommandCentral Aware offers a powerful tool to streamline your pre-event planning and enhance your real-time situational awareness during incidents.

The Markups tool allows you to dynamically display real-time 911 calls, CAD incidents and unit locations over collaborative markups and annotations on your map. This capability helps you and your command staff to visualize and communicate tactical information with clarity, speed, and accuracy.

Lt. Moss shared six examples of how Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, Georgia is enhancing tactical planning and response with CommandCentral Aware.

1. Pre-Event Planning for Large-Scale Events

Lt. Moss pre-stages resources for large-scale events like the annual Christmas Parade. By marking the parade route and unit staging locations on the map, command staff is able to have situational awareness of both planned and real-time unit location to support optimal resource deployment. Supervisors and other key personnel are able to quickly assess unit positions during the event.

Example shown
Example shown: Pre-staged unit locations marked on the map ahead of the planned Christmas parade event.

Other large-scale events requiring pre-planning could include festivals, concerts, sporting events, controlled burns and more, depending on different communities’ needs.

2. Real-Time Tactical Response During House-to-House Search

During an incident involving a suspect actively breaking into homes, Lt. Moss and his team utilized Markups to document the search teams’ progress in real time. They color-coded the houses searched and noted the results, allowing other officers to quickly identify the areas cleared and the locations still requiring investigation. They also noted key information such as the availability of video footage at the location investigators to follow up after the incident. 

“We did this over a large-scale area of a neighborhood,” said Lt. Moss. “It was very helpful for us because it gave us the ability to mark off certain areas that we knew had been checked, and gave us an idea of where we still needed to go.”

Example image shownExample shown: Documented house-to-house search marked locations

Example imageExample shown: Markup tool labels available for house-to-house search tactical planning

3. Tactical Response at a Facility or Campus Location

Annotations can be overlaid directly on the mapped layout during an incident at a building or campus, such as school. An incident commander, either on-scene or remotely, can visualize the scene and share vital information with clear notes and labels; for example, using a symbol like a red triangle or a “hot zone” indicator to clearly show the area where an active shooter was last reported.

“You can even put [markers] on buildings, depending on what you’re dealing with,” said Lt. Moss. “For example, in the case of a large high school, it’s important to have many different options for icons to notate different things during a critical incident.”

Real-time updates provide everyone with the most current information while evacuation routes and search patterns are marked and tracked on the map. This dynamic, shared visual representation enhances communication, optimizes resource allocation, and ultimately speeds up response and rescue efforts, potentially saving lives.

4. Tactical Response During High-Risk Events Outside of Jurisdiction

The tactical tool can be used to share information and assist in real-time tactical response, even for events happening outside of an agency’s jurisdiction.

“We had a request from a neighboring agency that does not have the technology and resources that we do to help with a barricaded armed subject,” said Lt. Moss.

He was able to use CommandCentral Aware’s borderless base map to view the location of the unfolding incident outside of the perimeter of the county. He annotated locations and information related to the critical incident, which was immediately visible to personnel at the agency. Lt. Moss and staff are able to access the web-based application from any location at all hours.

5. Building a Timeline of Events at a Crime Scene

The Markups tool can create a comprehensive timeline of events at a crime scene. Mark the location of witness sightings, the discovery of evidence, or the arrival and departure of responders during an investigation.

“If you have something that spans over several neighborhoods within a community, it could help you create a timeline to be able to drop pins and ‘spotted on camera’ in this area at a specific time,” said Lt. Moss. 

A visual record of the incident’s progression is visualized by annotating the map with times, details, and descriptions. This timeline becomes crucial for investigations, helping to clarify the sequence of events, identify potential inconsistencies, and capture key details for future review.

6. Communicating Road Closures and Hazards

The Markups tool can communicate road closures and potential hazard information to field officers. Marking road closures, traffic diversions and hazard locations on the map ensures that officers can immediately access critical information and avoid potential hazards. Clear these markers easily after the situation is addressed.

“For a major accident on the interstate, you can drop and label something on [the map] and create a line to show the road is closed, and then anybody that’s logged into CommandCentral Aware that’s in the field would be able to see it,” said Lt. Moss.

Additional Uses

“During Special Response Team (SRT) call outs, a tactical operation, you can drop pins and label things,” said Lt. Moss. “There’s a lot of ways you can use it.”

Additional use cases could include carjackings, natural disasters, mass casualty and other high-risk events.

Taking Tactical Planning and Response to the Next Level

You can take your agency’s tactical planning and response to the next level by utilizing the Markups tool. Enhance communication, improve situational awareness, and optimize resource allocation for preplanned events and high-risk incidents.

Explore the power of CommandCentral Aware and elevate your agency’s tactical capabilities. Learn more here or contact us.

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