Informant's CAD Interface integration allows one or more agencies using the Informant records management system within a county or regional 911 system to import CAD calls from the county or regional 911 system's CAD software. This article is intended to aid county and regional CAD officials and IT staff with an overview of how CAD Interface is implemented in a county/regional CAD environment.


Summary


Prerequisites


To implement the CAD Interface for multiple Informant agencies in the county or regional CAD system:


  • The county/regional CAD software must be able to export CAD calls in a text-based file format, such as XML, JSON, or plain text.
  • The county/regional CAD software must export calls in the same format for all agencies.
  • CAD calls for an agency must be exported to a designated folder on that agency's Informant server via a periodic or real-time file transfer implemented by the CAD vendor or the county (see Step 2: You configure a file transfer mechanism for each agency).
  • The county/regional CAD software must be able to differentiate CAD calls by agency, such as by including the agency ORI in the filename or in the body of the CAD file.
  • Each county must provide the list of CFS/call type codes used by the county/regional CAD software to each Informant agency so that they can create the necessary mappings between the codes used in the county/regional CAD software and their own Informant system. To import assigned officer information correctly in calls, a list of standard unit numbers or officer identifiers (such as badge numbers) used to identify officers in the county/regional CAD software should also be provided to each agency so that they can map officers in calls to officers in their Informant system.


Step 1: We collect sample CAD files and assess if a custom integration is needed


Informant's CAD Interface already integrates with a few well-known CAD vendors and CAD file formats; however, CAD vendors sometimes customize their CAD file format or have different versions of their products that can result in the CAD file format being different from the existing formats we work with.


If the format used by your county or regional CAD system is not a format our CAD Interface natively supports, custom development work will be needed to make the interface compatible with your CAD system's file format.


To make this determination, we'll ask for sample CAD files from your county or regional CAD system so that we can assess compatibility with our CAD Interface.


Step 2: You configure a file transfer mechanism for each agency


Informant's CAD Interface runs as a Windows service on each agency's server. The service regularly scans a designated folder on the agency's server or network for new CAD files at a configurable frequency (i.e., once every N minutes, N hours, or N days), archives processed files, and notifies agencies of any import errors via email notifications.


Your county or regional group, or your CAD vendor, will be responsible for configuring the automatic transfer of relevant CAD files from your county/regional CAD system to the designated folder at each agency. This is typically done with either a "push" or a "pull" model:


  • Push: In this model, the CAD vendor's system or a script on the CAD system pushes exported CAD call files to the relevant agency's server, usually via FTP or SFTP. This means the agency will be running an FTP or SFTP server and will typically need a public static IP address.
  • Pull: In this model, the CAD vendor or county may set up an FTP,  SFTP,  or other file transfer client on each agency's server, along with a scheduled task or script to pull files down periodically from the central CAD server.


Other file transfer methods are possible, but these are the most common.


From the perspective of the Informant CAD Interface software, as long as files are placed in the designated folder on the agency's server, it will be able to process and import incoming CAD files.


Step 3: We test the CAD Interface with one agency


Next, you'll designate one agency in the group to perform CAD Interface testing to verify that CAD files are importing correctly.


We will work with this agency to implement the CAD Interface on their Informant server, help them configure any code mappings, and have them confirm that calls are importing correctly. If any issues are discovered with the import process, we will address them during this stage. This process may involve updating the agency to a new version of Informant or installing patches for the CAD Interface as needed.


Once the import process is determined to be working as expected, we will proceed to the next step.


Step 4: We implement the CAD Interface at the remaining agencies


After testing is complete, the CAD Interface will be set up at the remaining agencies. For individual agencies, see Implementing CAD Interface at the agency level for the steps that will be completed at each agency, including configuring any necessary mappings between codes used by the CAD system and the corresponding values used in their Informant system, such as mapping complaint types between the CAD system and their Informant system.


Agencies may also need to update Informant to a newer version during this phase.


Step 5: We monitor and ensure the interface is working as expected


After all agencies are live with the CAD Interface, we'll remain responsive to any feedback from agencies regarding the interface and address any issues with software updates as needed.