Page Comparison

Module 5 - Text2ParkMe

Text2ParkMe allows users to pay for temporary parking via SMS (text) messaging. Text2ParkMe will also send out reminders when their parking time is about to expire and allow users the option to extend their parking time. Text messaging fees  do apply based on individual phone plans.  For system security, Text2ParkMe only allows one active booking at a time. Users cannot book more than one transaction/vehicle parking booking until the previous booking has expired. Users will also want to refer to their organizations parking map for visitor parking lot locations.

Enforcement Officers that do virtual chalks or plate searches on vehicles that have valid Text2ParkMe temporary permits will show as valid with the expiry on the Android Handheld units.

Setting up OPS-COM to Use Text2ParkMe (T2P)

If you have purchased Text2ParkMe you must have a gateway provider setup to accept T2P payments. You must work with our project manager to ensure this gateway is configured and tested to work with your system. 

You will also require a T2P phone number that your users will text to obtain temporary parking. The OperationsCommander Support team will ensure this number is setup and tested for you.

You must also setup your lots to allow Text2ParkMe permits. Refer to this wiki article for more information.

Your Clients and Text2ParkMe

Operations Commander will handle the following English-language text messages in accordance with industry standards:

• STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, and QUIT –  will stop customers from receiving messages.
• START, YES and UNSTOP will opt customers back in to the messages coming from your Text2ParkMe phone number.
• HELP and INFO will return a message informing the customer that they can use the above commands to control the delivery of messages.

Refer to this wiki article for information about how your clients must setup to enable Text2ParkMe.  They must provide a cell phone number, add a vehicle and store a credit card on their user profile.

Text2ParkMe Reports

There are two reports that Admins will regularly use to manage T2P. These are the 'Usage' and the 'Active Permits' reports.

The Usage report allows administrators to view details about users who have used Text2ParkMe.  Refer to this wiki article for more information.

The Active Permits report allows administrators to view details about the users who are currently parked using Text2ParkMe. Refer to  this wiki article  for more information.

Module 6 - Violations

Enforcement is a critical part of your Parking Management strategy. There are 2 ways to get violations entered into OPS-COM you can enter them in the field using the Android handheld unit or you can have your patrol officers write manual tickets and an OPS-COM Admin can enter the violation manually into the OperationsCommander software.

Note: You must have your Violations options setup before continuing. If you have not completed the Module 1 training for setting up your Violation Options,  click here . 

OPS-COM for Android

Setting up your Android Handheld Unit

If you have purchased handheld licenses you will need to get your Android unit setup and ready to go with OPS-COM. The OperationsComander app is free.  You will be prompted to allow OPS-COM to access the camera, location services, etc., all of which are used in feeding data to the OPS-COM system. Please ensure you allow these items in order to have OPS-COM for Android to function properly.  For instructions about installing OPS-COM for Android for the first time, refer to this wiki article.

Patrol officers must be setup with the proper roles and permissions to use this application and log in.  Refer to Module 1 training for more information.

You must contact the OperationsCommander team with the ID of your handheld unit. You will need your Device Unique Identifier. You can find this in the settings area. To access your android handheld settings refer to this wiki article. Once you have your device UI email support@ops-com.com for more information.

Once you have setup your app and registered it with the OPS-COM team, you should ensure that your app auto-updates. We frequently update our software with fixes and functionality improvements. It is important to be running the latest software. For more information refer to this wiki article.

You will need to setup your Bluetooth printers so that you can print out your violations. Currently we support Star Micronics prints, specfically the SM-T300 series.  For more information about install your Star Micronics Bluetooth printer refer to this wiki article.

Best Practices for using OPS-COM for Android

The best tips and tricks for successfully using OPS-COM for Android are listed in the following article.

Virtual Chalking

What is virtual Chalking?

• Virtual chalking, or e-chalking is an electronic process that mirrors how an officer would manually chalk a vehicle's tire, in order to see how long they have been parked. 
• Virtual chalking creates a Time-Stamped image, of both the license plate & the entire car, in order to track how long they've been parked
• Virtual chalking provides an image that can be attached to the violation and is acceptable in a court-of-law, provided the date/time stamp is visible & clear.  The chalked image is part of the violation,  unless the patrol officer deletes the image . 
• When LPR software is capturing plates, officers can simply click "Virtual Chalk"  to create/save the image 

There are some situations where chalking is very useful, for example; If a vehicle is parked and the owner is going to purchase a permit, there can be a grace period to allow the client to obtain the permit and return to the vehicle to display the permit. Alternately, in areas where parking is provided on a timed basis where a vehicle can park free for 2 hours, the officer can virtually chalk the vehicle on a first pass earlier in the day and then be able to check the vehicle later in the day to determine if it has been parked longer than the permitted time frame.

Chalking vehicles manually is time consuming, so being able to virtually-chalk vehicles makes a time-efficient solution for a necessary aspect of parking management. Chalk records stored with a violation help when dealing with Appeals as a time-stamped image is available as "proof" of the infraction.

For information about chalking a vehicle using the Handheld units, refer to this wiki article.

Searching for Vehicles by Plate

The Vehicle Search option allows staff/enforcement officers to search vehicles by plate and view details about that vehicle. This is often an important first step in the Violation Issuance process.  

There are three methods to enter the plate information.

1. Text using the keypad
2. Voice command using the built in mic
3. LPR using OCR technology through the tablet's camera. 

Refer to this wiki article for more information

Search for Permits

The Permit Search option allows staff/enforcement officers to search permits and view details about that permit. This can also an important first step in the Violation Issuance process. There are two ways to search for permits using the OPS-COM for Android app. You can search for the permit by typing it in or use the barcode scanner if your permits have them and have been configured in OPS-COM Admin.  For more information about searching for permits, refer to this wiki article.

Issuing a Violation using OPS-COM for Android

Violation Entry allows your Patrol Officers to create a Violation that can be printed and synced to the OperationsCommander System. Once the Violation is synced, the offender can pay the violation or appeal it.  You have already learned how to Search by Plate and Permit to see if a vehicle has a valid permit to park. Follow the steps in this wiki article to learn about issuing a Violation using OPS-COM for Android.

From time to time you may need to reprint a violation because of computer malfunction, refer to this wiki article for more information.

Receive Alerts in the Field

Patrol officers now have the ability to see important news by viewing message alerts on the handheld device. Alert messages are pushed out to all or individual handhelds by the Administrators of the OPS-COM software. Refer to this wiki article for more information about receiving these messages. Refer to this wiki article for information about pushing these messages out to the handheld units in the field.

ViolationAdmin for OperationsCommander

The ViolationAdmin section of OPS-COM allows you to view the violations information and to sort through it easily. It also allows you to add new violations through the simple violations entry page. You can also view appeals in this section.

Manual Violation Entry 

This is most often used if field officers are issuing paper tickets that need to be manually entered into OPS-COM. There are also enforcement officers that have cars equipped with laptops logged into OperationsCommander web version. These officers would enter their tickets directly through this system. For more information about manually entering violations, refer to this wiki article.

Once issued or synced you may need to search for a violation and make changes. Refer to this wiki article for information about editing a violation. 

Processing Appeals as an Administrator

Your Clients/Users will submit Appeals for their Violations through the User Portal. OPS-COM administrators can review violation appeals to cancel tickets, grant appeals with reduced fines or uphold appealed violations. In the event that the appeal time has expired and no appeal has been applied for, then the Admin can still grant an appeal by editing the violation and using the Appeal area in the edit window. Refer to this wiki article for more information.

Paying a Violation as an Administrator

When an individual comes into the office to pay a ticket in person you can process the payment through the Admin side. Refer to this wiki article for more information.

ViolationAdmin Reports

There are many reports available in ViolationAdmin. Refer to  this wiki article  for more information.

Module 7 - Incidents

Incident management reports and tracking is integrated into  Operations Commander  through IncidentAdmin.  IncidentAdmin is an all-in-one incident management platform for security teams to track issues and manage all aspects of physical security, investigations, and caseloads.  It has been designed to suit the needs of a variety of operations including Colleges and Universities, private facility security, and niche security teams.  Due to the sensitive nature of the information your team is dealing with it is necessary to restrict information on a granular level. The IncidentAdmin module encourages you to plan your job descriptions so you can create roles and grant access to different roles based on need. For more information about permissions refer to the Incident Permissions section of this wiki article.

IncidentAdmin Setup

It is important to configure several items prior to using the incident module.  For information about Configuring IncidentAdmin, refer to this wiki article.

Working with IncidentAdmin

Incidents can be reported in several ways:

• Campus Security may observe violations as they occur
• Individuals may contact campus security to report incidents
• Staff may report incidents on behalf of fellow staff or students
• Requests to investigate may come from campus administration
• Incidents may be caught on surveillance cameras etc.

Initiating the entry of incidents into the system can be done in a couple of ways. 

• Dispatch Logs
• Incident Entry

These items can be generated in any order. 

Once an incident is recorded in the system Security Administrators can track the progress of any resulting investigation or follow-up events related to the incident.
Tasks can be created and assigned to officers, primary investigators, case workers and security administration through the incidents tool.

Investigators can track their progress from initial discovery through to resolution. 
Steps taken in the process as well as the outcome for individuals involved can be recorded, and in turn reported on through IncidentAdmin.

The following subjects are the main highlights in the workflow process in IncidentAdmin.

1. Searching ,  viewing   and  editing   incident records
2. Working with  related occurrences  and violations
3. Viewing " My Tasks " within IncidentAdmin
4. Generating  reports   from records stored in IncidentAdmin

A Word About Reports

There are a number of reports that can be generated in IncidentAdmin.

1. Recent Incidents Summary Report - Lists the last 30 days of incident records. For more information  click here .
   
2. Search Repeat Offenders - Report on individuals involved in multiple incidents
3. Weekly Stat Report - Reports on the number of all types of incidents that happened during a specified time span
4. Calls for Service
5. Summary Search - Allows administrators to get a summary of all incidents that have been recorded within a specified time frame. For more information  click here .
6. Summary Report - Allows administrators to produce a list in a spreadsheet format of incident summaries based on a date range.
7. Report by Category - Search for incidents under defined categories within a specific time frame. For more information  click here .
8. Sub Location Report - Search incidents filtered by sub location. For more information  click here .

Module 8 - Payments

1. Payments & Transaction Flow
2. Payment Processing Models
3. Highlight reports

4. Electronic Funds Transfer Setup

   OPS-COM can accept Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) payments from your clients if you have done the necessary custom development to use this system. Currently, we only offer this service for the Royal Bank of Canada. Contact your Sales Representative if you are using another provider.

   EFT is used as a recurring payment method when paying for permits through the rollover process only. EFT cannot be used in any other way in OPS-COM. For more information, refer to this wiki article.

Setting up the Communication/Landing Page for Admins

When initially logging onto OperationsCommander as an administrator, the first landing page you are presented with has a message window that can be edited to suit your specific needs. General information can be placed here. Many ops-com users place schedule information on this landing page as well. For more information refer to this wiki article.