FirstWatch CAD — Product Demo Training

Module 1 of 5

The Dispatch View

The main command screen — where dispatchers live 24/7

Understanding the three-panel layout

ORIENTATION

The Dispatch view is split into three panels. Every piece of information a dispatcher needs is visible at once — no switching screens.

LOOK AT THE APP

Left sidebar — Active incidents list at top, unit roster at bottom. This is your situational awareness column.
Center — The live tactical map. Every unit and incident is plotted here in real time.
Right panel — Context panel. Shows details of whatever you've selected, plus quick nav and radio tabs.

💬 WHAT TO SAY IN A DEMO

"Legacy CAD systems have 3–4 separate screens — the map, the incident log, the radio, and the unit board. FirstWatch puts all of that on one screen. Your dispatcher never takes their eyes off the map."

Reading the incident cards

INCIDENTS

The left sidebar shows all active and pending incidents color-coded by priority. This is the first thing a dispatcher checks at the start of every shift.

DO THIS IN THE APP

Look at the left sidebar — you'll see INC-001 (red border = P1 Critical), INC-002 (amber = P2 Urgent), and INC-003 (blue = P3 Routine/Pending).
Click on INC-001 — watch the right panel update with full incident details, notes, assigned units, and action buttons.
Notice the incident address, reported time, zone assignment, and unit tags all appear instantly.

The colored left border on each card is the fastest visual cue — red means someone may die, amber means urgent, blue means routine. Dispatchers learn to scan this column without reading.

💬 WHAT TO SAY IN A DEMO

"Notice the priority system — P1 is critical, P2 urgent, P3 routine. The color coding is instant. A dispatcher can glance at this column and know the state of the entire county in under 2 seconds."

Interacting with the live map

MAP

The tactical map is the heart of FirstWatch. Every unit is a directional arrow showing which way they're heading. Every incident pulses to show it's active.

DO THIS IN THE APP

Click any arrow on the map — that's a unit. The right panel shows its speed, heading, fuel, crew size, and assigned incident.
Click any pulsing circle — that's an incident. The number inside is the priority level.
Use the + / − buttons (top right of map) to zoom in and out.
Click the hexagon button to toggle the mutual aid zone overlays on and off.
Click the droplet button to toggle hydrant locations.

Units move every 2.5 seconds in real time. Watch the dispatched units (amber arrows) — they drift on the map as they travel toward their incidents.

💬 WHAT TO SAY IN A DEMO

"Every arrow on this map is a real unit with live GPS. The direction it points is the direction it's traveling. The color tells you its status — green is available, amber is en route, blue is on scene. You can see your entire fleet at a glance."

Dispatching a unit to an incident

DISPATCH

This is the core workflow — a call comes in, you create or select the incident, and dispatch the nearest available unit in seconds.

DO THIS IN THE APP

Click on INC-003 in the left sidebar (the pending MVA).
In the right panel, you'll see it has no units assigned and a Dispatch Unit button.
Click Dispatch Unit — watch what happens: a unit's status changes to "dispatched," it gets assigned to INC-003, and a radio message auto-generates on CH1.
The incident status changes from "pending" to "active."

In a real deployment, this triggers a CAD sync to Motorola or Tyler, sends an MDT alert to the unit's in-vehicle computer, and logs the dispatch time automatically.

💬 WHAT TO SAY IN A DEMO

"One tap dispatches a unit, logs the time, notifies the crew's MDT, updates the CAD record, and sends the radio announcement — all simultaneously. What used to take 4–5 manual steps is now one button."

Module 2 of 5

Turn-by-Turn Navigation

Code 3 routing built into the dispatch console

Opening the Navigate view

NAVIGATION

The Navigate tab gives you a full-screen routing view. This is what a battalion chief or supervisor uses to track unit routing in real time.

DO THIS IN THE APP

Click the Navigate tab in the top navigation bar.
The screen switches to a full-width map with a blue navigation strip at the top.
On the left side you'll see the route step list — each waypoint with distance and a directional icon.

If navigation isn't active yet, you'll see "No active navigation." Go back to Dispatch, click a unit, then click the Navigate button in the right panel first.

Starting navigation from a unit

NAVIGATION

Navigation is unit-specific. You select which unit you want to route, and the system generates the optimal path to their assigned incident.

DO THIS IN THE APP

Go back to Dispatch tab.
Click on E-02 in the unit roster (left sidebar, bottom half) — it's dispatched to INC-001.
In the right panel, click Navigate.
The app switches to the Navigate view with E-02's route to INC-001 loaded.
Watch the blue strip at the top — it shows the current instruction, distance, and ETA.

The route auto-advances every 7 seconds in the demo to simulate the unit moving. In a real deployment this advances based on actual GPS position crossing waypoint thresholds.

Reading the route step list

NAVIGATION

The left column in Navigate view shows the complete route breakdown — every turn, every distance, with visual completion tracking.

LOOK AT THE APP

Completed steps have a green checkmark and green left border — the unit has passed that waypoint.
Current step is highlighted in blue — this is the active instruction.
Upcoming steps are dimmed — they're queued but not yet active.
The ETA and distance in the top-right metrics update as the route progresses.

💬 WHAT TO SAY IN A DEMO

"The battalion chief can pull up any unit's route from their tablet and see exactly where they are in the response. No radio back-and-forth asking 'what's your ETA' — it's right here."

Module 3 of 5

Radio Console

Multi-channel communications integrated into dispatch

Navigating the radio channels

RADIO

FirstWatch monitors multiple radio channels simultaneously. Fire Primary, Police, HazMat, Mutual Aid, and tactical channels all feed into one console.

DO THIS IN THE APP

Click the Radio tab in the top nav.
The left column shows your channel list — CH1 (Fire/EMS Primary), CH2 (Police), CH3 (HazMat), CH4 (Mutual Aid), TAC1 (INC-001 Tactical).
Click each channel to see which units are assigned to it and switch the main feed.
The right column shows the signal monitor (waveform animation) and recent activity log.

The active channel is highlighted with a blue left border. The "units on air" list below the channel list shows who's currently monitoring that channel.

Reading the radio traffic feed

RADIO

The center column is the live radio feed — every transmission is color coded by who sent it and automatically timestamped.

LOOK AT THE APP

Amber border = Dispatch transmission
Blue border = Unit transmission (E-02, M-01, etc.)
Purple border = Command transmission (BC-01)
Red border + pulsing = MAYDAY — highest priority alert

New radio messages auto-generate every 18 seconds in the demo to simulate live traffic. Watch the feed — new messages will appear automatically.

💬 WHAT TO SAY IN A DEMO

"Every radio transmission is logged, timestamped, and color-coded automatically. After an incident, you have a complete searchable radio transcript — no more listening to recordings to reconstruct the timeline."

Transmitting from the console

RADIO

Dispatchers can type and transmit messages directly from the console — they appear in the feed instantly and are logged.

DO THIS IN THE APP

Make sure you're on CH1 in the Radio view.
Click the text input at the bottom that says "Transmit on CH1…"
Type any message — for example: "All units INC-001, provide status update."
Press Enter or click the TX button.
Watch your message appear in the feed as a Dispatch (amber) transmission.

You can also access a mini radio panel from within the Dispatch view — click the Radio tab in the right panel without leaving the map.

Using the mini radio panel in Dispatch

RADIO

You don't have to leave the map to monitor radio. The right panel has a built-in mini radio feed so dispatchers can watch traffic while keeping eyes on the map.

DO THIS IN THE APP

Go back to the Dispatch tab.
In the right panel, click the Radio tab (third tab in the right panel).
You'll see a compressed radio feed showing the last 10 transmissions.
You can transmit from here too — type in the TX box and hit Enter.

💬 WHAT TO SAY IN A DEMO

"A dispatcher never has to leave the map. Radio, incident details, and unit telemetry are all accessible from this right panel without changing screens."

Module 4 of 5

Mutual Aid Zones

Geofenced coverage areas with boundary alerts

Understanding mutual aid zones

ZONES

Mutual aid zones define which agency is responsible for coverage in each geographic area. When a unit crosses a boundary, the system logs it and can auto-notify the neighboring agency.

DO THIS IN THE APP

Click the Zones tab in the top navigation.
The left sidebar shows your 4 configured zones: Aberdeen Primary, East Aberdeen, Harbor North, and Mutual Aid Corridor.
Each zone shows its status (active/standby/mutual-aid) and which agencies provide mutual aid for that zone.
On the map, the colored ellipses are the zone boundaries — dashed borders indicate the geofence perimeter.

Zone colors on the map match the zone list colors. Blue = Aberdeen Primary, Green = East Aberdeen, Purple = Harbor North, Amber = Mutual Aid Corridor.

Boundary alerts and zone management

ZONES

When a unit crosses a zone boundary — entering another agency's territory — FirstWatch logs a boundary crossing alert. This is critical for mutual aid billing and accountability.

DO THIS IN THE APP

In the Zones view, look at the left sidebar bottom section: Boundary Alerts.
Click the Add Alert Zone button — a new alert entry is logged with a timestamp.
The zone legend (top right of map) identifies each zone by color.

💬 WHAT TO SAY IN A DEMO

"When Hoquiam sends a unit into Aberdeen's zone for mutual aid, the system automatically logs the time they crossed the boundary. That timestamp is what gets used for mutual aid billing. No more manual logs."

Toggling zones on the dispatch map

ZONES

Zone overlays can be toggled on and off from the main dispatch map without leaving the dispatch view.

DO THIS IN THE APP

Go back to the Dispatch tab.
Look at the map control buttons (top right of map area).
Click the hexagon button — zone overlays disappear. Click again — they reappear.
Try the droplet button to toggle fire hydrant locations.
Try the car button to toggle traffic layer.

In a real deployment the hydrant layer pulls live from the agency's GIS database via Esri ArcGIS integration. Locations update automatically when the GIS is updated.

Module 5 of 5

Integrations Panel

How FirstWatch connects to your existing systems

Viewing CAD integration status

INTEGRATIONS

The Integrations panel is your IT team's best friend. It shows the real-time health of every connected system — at a glance you know if anything is broken.

DO THIS IN THE APP

Click the Integrations tab in the top nav.
The left column shows CAD Integrations — 8 connected systems each with a status dot: green = live, amber = warning, gray = offline.
Notice WSDOT Traffic API shows amber (warning) — high latency. IPAWS/WEA shows gray (not yet enabled).
Click Test on any integration — it runs a connectivity check and logs the result in the API log (center bottom).

💬 WHAT TO SAY IN A DEMO

"Your IT director can see the health of every integration on one screen. If Motorola CAD sync goes down, you know in seconds — not when a dispatcher notices something's wrong an hour later."

Reading data feeds and API logs

INTEGRATIONS

The center column shows live data feeds — what's coming in, how often, and from where. The API log at the bottom shows a real-time event stream.

LOOK AT THE APP

AVL/GPS Telemetry — updates every 2 seconds from fleet MDTs
NOAA Weather — updates every 60 seconds
Hospital Diversion — updates every 30 seconds from Harbor Medical
AMBER/BO Alert — push notifications from WSP WACIC
The API log shows timestamped sync events — green = success, warnings flagged

The configuration panel

INTEGRATIONS

The right column is where IT configures the integration endpoints — CAD API URLs, AVL WebSocket feeds, GIS server URLs, and agency authentication tokens.

LOOK AT THE APP

The right column shows pre-filled endpoint URLs for Grays Harbor County.
Each agency gets their own endpoint configuration during onboarding.
The Save Configuration button commits changes.
The Export Config button downloads a JSON file for backup or deployment to additional dispatch stations.

💬 WHAT TO SAY IN A DEMO

"Setup is a half-day with your IT team. We provide all the endpoint documentation. Most agencies are connected to their existing Motorola or Tyler CAD within 48 hours of signing."

Demo script — your 10-minute pitch

SALES

You're ready to demo. Here's the exact sequence to run through with a fire chief, EMS director, or 911 center manager in 10 minutes.

YOUR DEMO SCRIPT

(1 min) Open firstwatchcad.com — show the marketing site. "This is what we built." Click Launch App.
(2 min) Dispatch view — point out the 3 panels. Click INC-001. "P1 structure fire, 2 units assigned, here are the notes, here's the address."
(1 min) Click units on the map. "Every arrow is a live unit. Green = available, amber = en route. Watch them move."
(1 min) Click INC-003 (pending MVA). Click Dispatch Unit. "One tap — unit assigned, radio message sent, CAD record updated."
(1 min) Switch to Navigate. "The battalion chief can see any unit's route, ETA, and every turn from a tablet."
(1 min) Switch to Radio. "All channels in one console, auto-logged, auto-timestamped. Show a transmission."
(1 min) Switch to Zones. "Your mutual aid boundaries. When Hoquiam crosses into your zone, it's logged automatically."
(1 min) Switch to Integrations. "We connect to your existing Motorola or Tyler CAD. No rip and replace. Live in 48 hours."
(1 min) Close with pricing. "Agency plan is $2,499/month. That's less than one overtime shift per month."

The most powerful moment in the demo is the dispatch — clicking one button and watching the unit status change, the radio message appear, and the incident update simultaneously. Pause there and let them react.

FirstWatch CAD — Product Training

Training Complete