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In small public-safety agencies — a rural police department, a small-town fire service, a county sheriff’s office, or a modest EMS provider — one person often wears every hat at once: setting organizational policy, managing agency resources, and sometimes dispatching calls from the same desk. Cadmus supports this reality by allowing a single user to hold both the OrgAdmin and AgencyAdmin roles simultaneously. This guide walks you through what that combination unlocks, how to set it up, and how to avoid the mistakes that trip up small-agency admins most often.

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What a small agency admin can do

Organization

Manage incident types, tags, common places, and GIS radius settings that apply across your entire organization.

Agency

Configure units, vehicles, NCIC and traffic stop toggles, and RMS report number formats for your agency.

Users

Invite dispatchers and officers, assign roles, adjust agency access, and deactivate departing staff.

Field

The same person can also log in to Dispatch CAD and work active calls — the roles do not prevent field or dispatch use.
Here is a summary of the full scope across each area:

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Set up a small agency admin account

1

Create or select the user

In Web Admin, navigate to Users and either create a new user or select an existing one.
2

Assign the OrgAdmin role

Edit the user and set their role to OrgAdmin for the organization. This grants access to incident types, org settings, GIS configuration, and org-wide user management.
3

Assign AgencyAdmin access

Assign the user AgencyAdmin (or the appropriate agency access level) for the primary agency. This grants access to units, vehicles, and agency-level settings.
4

Confirm access to both settings areas

Verify the user can open Settings (organization-level) and Agencies → Settings (agency-level) in Web Admin.
5

Sign in and verify both products

Have the user sign in to both Web Admin and Dispatch CAD and confirm that the expected sidebar items appear in each product.
Your Cadmus implementer may pre-provision users in Clerk during go-live. If accounts were already created, confirm with your IT team before creating duplicates.

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Daily workflow tips

For a full go-live checklist spanning Web Admin, Dispatch CAD, and Mobile CAD, see the Admin and manager setup guide.
  • Configure incident types and quick calls before go-live so dispatchers have the call types they need from day one.
  • Set agency settings — traffic stops, NCIC, CAD and E-Ticket modules — before training officers on the mobile app, so officers see the correct workflows during training.
  • Use the Sandbox organization for training exercises if your deployment includes a paired sandbox tenant. Changes made in Sandbox do not affect production data.
  • Document in writing who holds OrgAdmin for your organization. That person has broad power over the entire system and should be reachable during incidents and audits.

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E-ticket-only go-live checklist

Use this when the agency wants electronic citations only (no dispatch CAD):
1

Create the agency

In Web Admin → Agencies, create the agency or select an existing one.
2

Set modules

On Settings, turn CAD Module off and E-Ticket Module on. Leave Traffic Stops Allowed on unless policy says otherwise.
3

Configure citations

Complete Citation and report settings: template, charge codes, court info, and citation number blocks.
4

Invite officers

Add users with mobile access for that agency. They do not need dispatch training for CFS workflows.
5

Verify on a device

Sign in to Mobile CAD. Confirm E-Ticket appears, Calls/Map are hidden, and a test citation issues and syncs without a linked call.

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Common mistakes

Small agency admins hold broad system access. Use separate accounts for testing and training versus daily dispatch operations when possible. Mixing test actions and live dispatch on the same account complicates the audit trail.
CJIS and NCIC settings must comply with your state and agency policy. Enabling NCIC access for any user without verifying that org-level CJIS routing is configured causes queries to fail and may create a compliance gap.
  • Giving OrgAdmin to every officer — OrgAdmin grants visibility and control across all agencies in the organization. Assign it only to the person who actually needs org-wide configuration access.
  • Enabling NCIC at the agency without org CJIS configured — the agency-level toggle is necessary but not sufficient; org CJIS routing must also be set up before queries will succeed.
  • Editing the Sandbox org thinking it is production — confirm which organization is selected in the Web Admin header before making any configuration change.