Incident reporting

Purpose

The reporting form captures an incident in a consistent structure so reviewers can decide what happened, what still needs clarification, and who should see the record. It is not just a free-text note. The structured fields power the dashboard, search, review queue, trusted partner visibility, and later incident history.

Required report fields

• Title: A short label that describes the operational issue. Use "Suspicious vehicle near north entrance" instead of "Problem today."
• Summary: One clear paragraph that states what happened and why it matters.
• Detailed narrative: Chronology, direct observations, staff response, law enforcement involvement, and follow-up needs.
• Incident type: A structured category that helps search and pattern recognition.
• Occurred at: The event time, not simply the time the report is being submitted.
• Tags: Searchable labels for patterns such as vehicle, children, repeat-pattern, parking, or threat-statement.

Severity and operational status

Severity should describe potential impact and urgency. Operational status should describe what is still happening or needed. A medium severity report can still be open, and a high severity report can be monitoring if immediate action has already been taken.

• Low: Notable but limited concern, usually no immediate escalation.
• Medium: Meaningful security concern requiring review or follow-up.
• High: Serious concern that may affect operations, safety posture, or partner awareness.
• Critical: Immediate or severe issue requiring expedited attention.

Location and mapped sites

Use a saved mapped site whenever possible. Saved sites provide coordinates for the dashboard map and reduce ambiguity for reviewers. The campus or location detail should still describe the exact place involved: north entrance, children's wing, west parking lot, lobby, or off-site event location.

If no saved site is selected, the report can still be submitted, but it may not appear on the incident map until a mapped site exists.

Visibility choices

Visibility controls who should eventually be able to read the report after review. Use the narrowest option that supports the operational need.

• Origin only: Keep the report inside the submitting organization.
• Selected partners: Share with specific connected organizations according to organization defaults.
• Trust group: Make the report available to a defined coalition of connected partners.
• Region: Use for broader regional awareness when the issue is not limited to one relationship.

Report quality checklist

• State only what was observed directly, and label assumptions as assumptions.
• Include event time, location, and staff response.
• Avoid unnecessary personal identifiers unless they are operationally relevant.
• Add tags that a future reviewer would search for.
• Choose visibility intentionally rather than leaving broad sharing on by habit.