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Use this guide when something in Dispatch CAD isn’t behaving as expected — a board that looks empty, an F-key that fires nothing, or a query button that never appears. Most issues resolve with a configuration check in Web Admin or a data reload; work through the relevant accordion below before escalating to Cadmus support.
If you cannot sign in to Dispatch CAD, check the three most common causes before contacting your administrator.
  1. Account inactive — ask your agency admin to verify your account status in Web Admin → Users and reactivate it if needed.
  2. Wrong environment — confirm whether you are trying to sign in to the Live or Sandbox organization. The sign-in screen displays the organization name; look for a “Sandbox” or “Training” label.
  3. Invite pending — if your account was recently created, check your email for an invitation link. If the invite expired, ask your admin to resend it.
If the password is wrong, Cadmus keeps you on the sign-in screen and shows an error message (for example, that the password or username is incorrect). The app should not close. Use Forgot password on the sign-in screen if you need to reset it.
Your boards can appear empty for three common reasons: an incorrect agency filter, the wrong organization selected, or stale cached data.
  1. Open the Select Agencies picker in the header and confirm that the correct agencies are checked. After Clear, the count shows 0 of N and boards stay empty until you select agencies or tap All. If you added or were assigned to an agency recently, it may not be checked yet.
  2. Verify the organization badge in the header. If you belong to multiple organizations (for example, a Live org and a Sandbox training org), confirm you are signed in to the correct one.
  3. Select Reload Units & Dashboard Data from the header settings menu to force a fresh pull from the server.
If calls reappear after a reload but disappear again within minutes, contact your admin — the issue may be a WebSocket connectivity problem rather than a filter setting.
If you belong to both a Live organization and its paired Sandbox (training) organization, you may see “Could not load call board — check network or try signing in again” shortly after switching from one to the other. This usually means your session is still carrying the agency from the organization you switched away from.
  1. Sign out completely and sign back in, then select the organization you want to work in from the sign-in screen.
  2. After signing in, open the Select Agencies picker and confirm an agency for the current organization is checked.
  3. If the error persists on every sign-in, ask your admin to confirm — in Web Admin → Users — that your account has an agency assigned in both the Live and Sandbox spaces. A membership with no agency in the space you are entering causes this error.
Administrators: when creating a user for an organization that has paired Live and Sandbox spaces, the Add User form shows a separate Live Agency and Sandbox Agency selector. Choose an agency for each space so the user is not left without an agency in one of them.
When you open New CFS (F1) and expected incident types are absent, the type may be inactive in Web Admin or the local data cache is stale.
  1. Ask your admin to navigate to Web Admin → Incident types and confirm the type is set to Active.
  2. After the admin activates or adds the type, select Reload Units & Dashboard Data from the header settings menu in Dispatch CAD. New incident types populate only after a reload.
  3. Confirm you are in the correct organization — incident types are org-scoped, so switching to a different org will show a different list.
If pressing an F-key shortcut (F1–F12) produces no action, check whether a dialog is open and whether a template is configured.
  1. Close the New CFS dialog if it is open — dashboard F-keys are disabled while that form is open.
  2. For F1–F5, confirm you are on the dispatch dashboard (not mid-dialog) and try again. F4 opens Map only; RapidSOS (training builds) is click-only.
  3. For F6–F12, ask your admin to open Web Admin → Quick Call Shortcuts and verify a template exists for that key, and that its incident type is Active.
  4. Select Reload Units & Dashboard Data in Dispatch CAD after any template changes. If the template was just created, a full restart of Dispatch CAD may be required before the shortcut fires.
The Query button (F3) is controlled by a combination of agency-level and org-level settings. If it is not visible, one or both settings are likely off.
  1. Your admin must enable State/NCIC Access in Web Admin → Agencies → your agency → Settings.
  2. State/NCIC Access requires a CJIS site to be configured at the organization level by a CadmusAdmin. If the toggle is on but the button still does not appear, the org-level CJIS site may be missing — contact your CadmusAdmin.
  3. If your agency has NCIC enabled but your personal account does not, ask your admin about a user-level override.
Only CJIS-certified personnel should be granted NCIC access. Contact your agency’s CJIS security officer before requesting this change.
If the Login User dialog (F2) shows an empty unit list, either the wrong agency is selected or units have not been created in Web Admin.
  1. Confirm the agency selected in the Dispatch CAD header matches the agency whose units you expect to see. Units are agency-scoped.
  2. Ask your admin to navigate to Web Admin → Agencies → your agency → Units and verify that units have been created and are active.
  3. Select Reload Units & Dashboard Data after the admin adds or activates units.
Cadmus deployments commonly pair a Live organization for production use with a Sandbox organization for training. Dispatching in the wrong environment is a significant risk.
  1. Check the header banner — Dispatch CAD displays a prominent SANDBOX MODE or LIVE MODE indicator.
  2. If you are unsure which environment you signed in to, sign out and confirm the organization name on the sign-in screen. Sandbox orgs are typically labeled with a suffix such as ”– Sandbox” or ”– Training.”
  3. Never record real citizen calls or submit NCIC queries against real plates in a Sandbox org.
If your organization’s Live and Sandbox orgs have similar names, ask your OrgAdmin to rename them more distinctly to prevent confusion.
If the map view (F4) fails to load or the RapidSOS caller-location feature is unavailable, check the following:
  1. Confirm that GIS and RapidSOS integrations are configured at the organization level in Web Admin → Integrations.
  2. The RapidSOS header shortcut may be unavailable in some live deployments — use the map-side RapidSOS tracking panel instead.
  3. If a call’s map pin is not resolving to the correct location, try Refresh Address Resolution on the call detail before pinning the location on the map.
Contact your OrgAdmin if GIS or RapidSOS integrations do not appear in Web Admin — these may need to be enabled at the organization level.
A live-board banner tells you that the board may not be current. The message identifies what failed:
  • Could not load call board — select Reload Data.
  • Live connection lost — select Reload Data to reconnect and refresh current data.
  • Last board refresh failed — showing previous data — select Reload Data before relying on the board; the visible calls may be stale.
  • Agencies unavailable — select Retry now. If it remains unavailable, verify your connection and contact your supervisor or Cadmus support.
Do not rely on a board showing previous data for current calls or unit statuses. Wait for a successful refresh and for the banner to clear.
If call boards or unit statuses stop refreshing in real time and no banner is visible, the live connection may have dropped.
  1. Select Reload Units & Dashboard Data from the header settings gear menu. This re-fetches current data and reconnects the live board while keeping your session signed in.
  2. If the problem persists, open the gear menu and run Test Connection to check server reachability.
  3. If Cadmus support directs you to use Settings Recovery, select either Force Reload or Clear All Caches. Both actions sign you out, so sign back in afterward.
On a shared Windows login, Cadmus remains signed in as the previous dispatcher until that person uses the user menu to select Sign Out.
  1. Sign out from the user menu before changing dispatchers, then sign in with the current dispatcher’s account.
  2. Check Select Agencies in the header after signing in. Clear any filter that should not apply to the current dispatcher, or select All Agencies when appropriate for the console.
  3. Use Reload Units & Dashboard Data only to refresh the dashboard. It keeps the session signed in and does not replace signing out between dispatchers.
If Dispatch CAD shows an update notice but will not install:
  1. Confirm you are on a production Windows build from your agency’s supported release channel.
  2. Open Cadmus updates and check for Update ready — restart to install. If present, choose Restart to update.
  3. If you previously chose Later, open Settings & tools and choose Install pending update (subtitle may say the update was postponed).
  4. Ensure you have disk space for the full installer (typically hundreds of MB).
  5. If download fails repeatedly, use Download update for a manual installer or contact support with your current app version from the header.
Verification failures mean the staged file did not pass signature checks — the app will not install it. Retry after network conditions improve or ask support to confirm the latest release was published.

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Escalate to Cadmus support

If none of the steps above resolve your issue, contact Cadmus support. You can also open the Communication Center from the header (message icon with an exclamation mark, next to Settings) and choose Report a problem to submit feedback in-app. To help the team investigate quickly, collect the following information before you reach out:
  • Organization name and whether it is Live or Sandbox
  • Agency name
  • Affected user email address
  • Time the issue occurred (include time zone)
  • Steps to reproduce the problem
  • Screenshots showing the unexpected behavior
Never include NCIC response data, driver’s license numbers, plate results, or any other CJIS-protected information in support tickets, screenshots, or screen recordings. Doing so may violate your agency’s CJIS Security Policy.