Rules & Guidelines

 

 

National Incident Alerts - Reporting & ALERT DISPATCHING CRITERIA

 

Please refer to this list of incident alert guidelines before sending your alerts. This list is only intended to assist in keeping alerts simplified and accurate.

 

All information contained in NIA CAD alerts is to come from actual received radio transmissions, heard directly from their own radio / scanners, via an online broadcast, or verified reliable news media sources. 

 

NIA reserves the right to refuse, or ban any dispatcher or person that has / or is causing problems on our network in order to keep this a family friendly and user friendly system.

 

National Incident Alerts does not condone taking and redistributing reports from paid/for profit notification services (Example, IPN, 1RWN, BNN Etc...). HOWEVER - We are not against users reporting through our system and then redistributing their posts onto other systems - AS LONG as it was something they heard or saw / owned. This is your own alert and not someone else’s.

 

== MVA INCIDENT GUIDELINES ==

Alert on MVA's with one or more of the following conditions:

 

a. fatalities

b. serious or multiple injuries

c. entrapment

d. ejection

e. request for ALS medic unit

f. air medevac launched to LZ for patient transport

g. vehicle on fire

h. causing significant road closure

i. involving PD, FD and/or EMS Units

j. involving Major Transportation (e.g. Mass Transit Bus or Commuter Train)

k. vehicle vs. vehicle

l. vehicle vs. structure

m. vehicle vs. pedestrian

 

== FIRE INCIDENT GUIDELINES ==

Alert on Structure Fires with one or more of the following conditions:

(Alerts with unit’s enroute but not on scene are not page able)

 

a. confirmed working fire

b. structure fire with multiple calls

c. structure fire with smoke showing

d. multiple alarms

e. occupant entrapment

f. exposure risk to other nearby structures

g. collapse

h. mutual aid companies requested to the scene (not put on standby)

i. burn/smoke inhalation victim(s)

j. hazmat involvement

k. significant sized field or brush fires

l. brush fires endangering vehicle(s) and or structure(s)

m. aircraft or other large vehicle crash with fire

n. search and rescue ops

 

== POLICE INCIDENT GUIDELINES ==

Alert on Police Incidents with one or more of the following conditions:

 

a. shooting w/ victim(s)

b. shots fired (Confirmed with shell casings, or Witnesses giving firsthand information on the shots fired)

c. stabbing w/ victim(s)

d. armed robbery

e. violent assault

f. civil disturbance of a large or serious nature

g. bomb incidents (non-explosion situations should have evac in progress & bomb squad activation)

h. SWAT team deployed

i. armed hostage or barricade situations

j. officer shooting/officer needs help

k. foot or vehicle pursuit (give reason why suspect is wanted if known)

l. larger scale search and rescue efforts (give reason for search if known)

m. police helo deployed

n. search and rescue ops

o. amber alerts

p. never post any victim's names or any other personal information involved in an incident (please, no known suicides)

q. do not post any information that would compromise officer safety in any way

==WEATHER INCIDENTS/ALERTS=========

a. Any storm watch or warning must be issued and confirmed by National Weather Service (NWS) prior to paging out!

b. Any Tornado touchdowns or damage from storms/tornadoes must be confirmed by FD,EMS,PD, or  EMA on scene!

== ADDITIONAL NOTES ==

 

1. Do Not Post Automatic Fire Alarm

 

2. Do not attempt to list every piece of equipment responding to an alarm, as it consumes the limited character count of the alert message

 

3. No routine EMS calls, i.e. Cardiac Arrest, Difficulty Breathing, General Sickness, Lift Assists or Transfers, etc.

 

4. Remember character count is limited so please abbreviate whenever possible

 

5. Do not post delayed or old alerts greater than 2 hours (in progress, occurring incidents only if possible, if it is up to 2 hours old, please state “delayed” in narrative.

 

6. No Test Alerts unless auth. by an admin to do so.

 

7. Major weather alerts will be permitted, however not repeated updates. Please use common sense in judging which alerts should be posted and how. They should be interesting, newsworthy and/or priority type events, not routine occurrences.

 

If you have any questions about sending incident alerts, please contact the NIA Support Team by using the Support desk  section of the CAD

 

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CAUTIONS:

 

1) Per National Incident Alerts rules, we do not permit any information other than actively occurring public safety alerts from our coverage areas to be sent via our dispatch system unless sent as Smoke/Fire damage.

 

2) The dispatch system is to be used exclusively for in-progress public safety incident alert information.

 

3) Use the "UPDATE" link in UPDATE INCIDENT tab to add any new updated information to the existing alert. Only important updates should be added.

 

4) Absolutely NO SPAMMING will be tolerated. All alerts must be active incident related. Do not post URL web links (unless scene picture, or radio feed) or email addresses in alerts. All alerts are monitored and recorded. Any dispatchers who are found to have sent SPAM using the National Incident Alerts Dispatch system will have their membership immediately revoked, and will be permanently BANNED from the NIA System.

 

We hope you find these guidelines helpful in making the National Incident Alerts incident alert system an easy to use and fun way to share your active incidents with other Scanning Hobbyist and online listeners.

 

Thank you For being part of the NIA Dispatch team.