Self-Dispatch: Running the Board With No Dispatcher Online

A roleplay server doesn't always have someone free to sit on Dispatch. The CAD accounts for that directly, instead of just locking the board until someone with the Dispatch permission shows up.

How it's detected

The CAD checks, in real time, whether any on-duty unit belongs to a department whose type is set to Dispatch. If one is — even just one person — the board behaves exactly like normal: only Dispatch (or anyone else holding the Dispatch permission) can create calls, assign units, or close them out.

The moment nobody on duty is in a Dispatch-type department, self-dispatch kicks in automatically. Nobody has to flip a switch.

What self-dispatch actually changes

Any on-duty unit can create a new call and edit an existing one's details — title, location, priority — while self-dispatch is active. That's it. Two things stay dispatcher-only no matter what: assigning a call to another unit (that's dispatch deciding who responds, not a thing any officer should be able to do to someone else), and closing or reopening a call. Self-dispatch means "handle your own calls," not "take over dispatch's whole job."

What this looks like in practice

An officer spots something and needs a call to exist for it — a pursuit, a crash, whatever. With self-dispatch active, they open the board, hit New Call, fill it in, and it's live immediately, no waiting on anyone. The moment someone's actually on Dispatch again, that same officer loses the ability to create or edit calls themselves — not because anything broke, but because there's now someone whose literal job that is.

Attaching yourself to a call

Separate from all of this, and available all the time regardless of self-dispatch: any on-duty unit can attach themselves to an open call, which sets them en route and marks the call active if it was still pending. That's volunteering, not dispatching — it never needed the Dispatch permission and it still doesn't.