Write, validate, and submit an incident report

Understand the outcome

Validation checks structure; it doesn’t judge whether the narrative is accurate.

Incident Reporting provides guided NERIS reports that can start from Active911 calls, are checked by a validation engine, and are reviewed by an auditor. Approval does not send anything by itself: an authorized administrator queues approved reports, which are transmitted to NERIS with retries and logged on the Transmissions page. Departments work in Training, Sandbox, or Production mode.

Before you begin

Make the decision before changing the screen. Record the current configuration when the department already uses this feature, and use a test record or test account when the change can affect active members.

• Gather incident details, units, personnel, and narrative.
• Know your submission deadline.

Where to work and what access you need

Start from the portal destination named in the procedure. Administrators normally need permission to view Incident Reporting plus the specific create, edit, manage, approve, report, or all-record action used by the task. Visibility alone does not grant management access.

• Incident Reports/modules/neris/reports
• New report/modules/neris/reports/new
• Report editor/modules/neris/reports/:id
• Auditor Queue/modules/neris/auditor
• Analytics/modules/neris/analytics
• Department Fields/modules/neris/manage
• NERIS setup/modules/neris/setup
• Transmissions/modules/neris/transmissions
• Reference/modules/neris/reference
• Settings (including CAD import)/modules/neris/settings

Required foundation

• Core must be enabled and correctly configured before this workflow can operate reliably.

If your department uses custom roles, test the procedure with that role—not only with a full administrator account. This confirms the people responsible for daily operations can complete the workflow without receiving unrelated access.

Complete the task

1. Step 1Start the report

   Create a new report or claim an unclaimed imported call.

2. Step 2Complete sections

   Work through each guided section.

3. Step 3Add department fields

   Answer your department’s questions.

4. Step 4Attach files

   Add photos or documents if allowed.

5. Step 5Run checks

   Fix every blocking issue.

6. Step 6Submit for review

   Send it to the auditor.

Operational safeguards

Apply these module-level controls while completing the procedure. They prevent a technically saved configuration from becoming an operational or access problem later.

• Control point
  Start in Training Mode and practice with real crews.
• Control point
  Enter the NERIS department ID and pass the readiness checks before Production.
• Control point
  Decide whether approval locks a report and whether auditors can approve their own reports.
• Control point
  Separate writer, auditor, and administrator roles.
• Control point
  Decide who queues approved reports for NERIS.
• Control point
  Check the Transmissions page after each send.

Verify the result

Do not consider the setup complete merely because the save action succeeded. Confirm the behavior from the user-facing or operational view, then retain evidence of the test when department policy requires it.

• No blocking issues remain.
• Status shows submitted.
• The auditor can open it.

If any verification fails, return to the source configuration and correct it there. Do not edit a report or downstream record to conceal an incorrect setup.

Troubleshooting

A check seems unrelated

Look at dependent values in the referenced section.

Submit is missing

Fix blockers and check your permission.

Need to change a submitted report

Your department may allow editing while it waits; otherwise ask the auditor to return it.

Related Incident Reporting capabilities

This task sits inside a larger module workflow. These related capabilities may affect the result or provide the next administrative step:

• Guided sections for location, times, units and personnel, actions, property, casualties, narrative, and review
• CAD importing from Active911 into draft reports, assigned to a writer or left unclaimed
• Local validation plus NERIS validation before anything is sent
• Auditor queue with assignments, correction requests, and review history
• Queued NERIS transmission with retries and a Transmissions log
• Training Mode, Sandbox, and Production environments
• Department fields kept locally and never sent to NERIS
• Origin-and-cause investigations sent to NERIS as a second submission with their own investigation ID, discardable until they are sent
• Internal and public printable copies, JSON export, and analytics

Use the module hub to open the dedicated procedure associated with any capability listed here.

Connected modules and downstream effects

A change here can alter what members see, what data appears in reports, or how another module completes its workflow. Review the connected areas below before making a department-wide change.

• IntegrationsWeather, news, Active911, PSTrax, WhenToWork, and in-house data sources.
• Incident CommandA full-screen Command Portal with checklists, PAR, units, map, and timeline.

After deployment, test one complete workflow from the originating module through every connected destination your department uses. Document the final configuration so another administrator can audit or reproduce it later.

Continue in Incident Reporting

Return to the Incident Reporting module guide for connected workflows, dependencies, portal destinations, and additional procedures.