Mutual Aid Incidents from NERIS

When another fire department responds to an incident in your jurisdiction, they file the incident report in NERIS and tag your department as the jurisdiction of record. These tagged incidents automatically appear in your NERIS account, and Command Established can pull them in so you have a complete picture of what happened in your area -- even when you weren't the one responding.

This guide covers how the system works, how to sync these incidents, and how to tell them apart from your own.

How Interagency Aid Works in NERIS

NERIS uses a single-record model for mutual aid. Instead of both departments filing duplicate reports, only the assisting department creates the incident record. They then tag the jurisdiction department so the record shows up in both places.

There are three types of aid that can be recorded:

• Acting as Aid -- Response under a formal agreement or contract (automatic aid, contractual aid)
• In-Lieu Aid -- An external department covering your area without your department present (e.g., your units were all committed elsewhere)
• Support Aid -- Additional resources responding alongside your department

When another department tags you, their incident appears read-only in your NERIS account. Command Established can fetch these records so they show up alongside your own incidents.

Syncing Mutual Aid Incidents

To pull in mutual aid incidents from NERIS:

1. Navigate to Incidents in the sidebar
2. Scroll down to the Mutual Aid Received section at the bottom of the page
3. Click Sync from NERIS

Command Established will fetch all incidents where other departments tagged your entity and store them locally. The sync button shows a count of how many new or updated incidents were found.

Note: You must have your NERIS Entity ID configured in Settings > NERIS before syncing. If you haven't connected to NERIS yet, see How to Enroll Command Established in NERIS.

Who Can Sync

Syncing requires admin access and the NERIS submission permission. Regular members can view synced mutual aid incidents but cannot trigger a sync.

How Often to Sync

Syncing is on-demand -- click the button whenever you want to check for new incidents. It's a good practice to sync periodically (e.g., weekly or after a known mutual aid response) so your records stay current. Each sync checks for both new incidents and updates to previously synced ones.

How to Identify a Mutual Aid Incident

Mutual aid incidents are clearly distinguished from your department's own incidents in two ways:

On the Incidents Page

The Mutual Aid Received section appears below your regular incidents table. Each entry in this section shows:

• Date the incident occurred
• Filing Department -- the department that responded and filed the report, with their NERIS ID
• Incident Number -- links to the detail view
• Type -- the NERIS incident type (e.g., Structure Fire, EMS)
• Address where the incident occurred
• Aid Type -- Acting as Aid, In-Lieu Aid, or Support Aid

On the Detail Page

When you click into a mutual aid incident, you'll see a prominent blue banner at the top of the page that reads:

Mutual Aid Incident -- Read Only This incident was filed by [Department Name]. Your department is tagged as the jurisdiction of record.

The detail page shows the incident information that was reported to NERIS: timeline, address, incident type, and the filing department's details. There are no edit controls -- the record belongs to the filing department.

What You Can and Can't Do

Frequently Asked Questions