Agencies, Roles & Permissions
Nearly every question that starts "why can't I see..." is answered by your agency and your role.
REDENES is shared by many agencies at once, and the app keeps them apart on purpose. An agency - also called an organization - owns its own members, statuses, ranks, groups, modules, forms, maps, and alert rules. You belong to one or several agencies, but at any moment exactly one of them is active, and that choice decides what the rest of the app shows you.
Agency, Membership, Role: Three Different Things
| Term | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Agency | Which data you are looking at - members, incidents, forms, maps, alerts |
| Membership | Whether you belong to that agency at all, and whether the request is still pending |
| Role | What you may do inside the agency - most notably whether you are an administrator |
| Rank | Your position in the agency's structure, used in rosters and command |
| Status | Whether you are available right now - and which alerts reach you |
| Group | A named set of people used for messaging, campaigns, and assignments |
Joining an Agency
There are three ways into an agency, and they appear right after your credentials are accepted on Sign In.
| Route | What you need | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Existing Agency Login | Nothing - you already belong | Your normal daily sign-in |
| Request Access | A 6-character organization code from the agency | Joining a new department |
| Mutual Aid Login | An Incident ID | You are assisting another agency on one specific incident |
A request to join does not take effect immediately. It arrives as a Pending entry that somebody with administrator rights has to act on, and until they do, that agency's data stays out of reach. You can watch the roster and its statuses on Memberships.
| Membership status | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Pending | Your request is waiting for a decision |
| Joined | You are an active member and can work in the agency |
| Denied | The request was turned down |
| Removed | An administrator removed you from the agency |
| Left | You left the agency yourself |
Ask your agency for the organization code before you install the app. It is six characters, it is specific to that agency, and without it the Request Access route cannot get you anywhere.
Switching the Active Agency
If you belong to more than one agency, the agency name in the dashboard header is a switch.
- Tap the agency name at the top of the dashboard.
- The list shows every agency you belong to, each with its own unread count and its own mute icon.
- Tap one. The dashboard reloads with that agency's tiles, modules, and data.
What changes when you switch:
| Changes with the agency | Stays the same |
|---|---|
| Which tiles and modules appear | Your sign-in and your device |
| Incidents, messages, and directory | Your personal profile |
| Statuses, ranks, and groups available to you | Your units, theme, and date format |
| Forms, checklists, and reference material | Your app-wide alert rules |
| Unread counts and mute state | Your certifications |
Muting is per agency. A red agency name with a mute icon means alerts from that agency are paused - alerts from your other agencies keep coming. It is easy to mute one agency, forget, and assume the app has gone quiet everywhere.
Ranks, Statuses and Groups
These three lists are defined by your agency, which is why yours will not match another department's.
| List | Where you meet it | Who maintains it |
|---|---|---|
| Ranks | Rosters, personnel lists, and the command board | Administrators, on Manage Ranks |
| Statuses | The Status & Availability board | Administrators, on Manage Statuses |
| Groups | Chats, campaigns, and assignments | Administrators, on Manage Groups |
Every agency status maps onto one of three duty states - On Duty, On Call, or Off Duty - shown as green, amber, and grey. That mapping matters well beyond the status board, because your alert rules are stored separately for each duty state. See How Notifications Reach You.
Mutual Aid
Mutual aid is how you work an incident that belongs to someone else's agency. Instead of joining the whole agency, you sign in against a single Incident ID, which gets you into that one incident rather than the host agency's full data set.
Mutual aid access is scoped to the incident you were given. Treat it as a temporary pass: you are there to work one event, not to browse another agency's records.
Member Versus Administrator
Administrator rights unlock a whole section of the app. On App Settings, administrators see an extra Agency Admin area that other members do not; from there they reach the agency control panel on Agency Settings.
| Action | Member | Administrator |
|---|---|---|
| Sign in and set your own status | Yes | Yes |
| Open incidents you have access to | Yes | Yes |
| Send messages, use audio and phone | Yes | Yes |
| Fill in forms, logs, and checklists | Yes | Yes |
| Edit your own profile and certifications | Yes | Yes |
| Create an incident | Only with the add permission for that tool | Yes |
| Edit the command board structure | Only with edit rights | Yes |
| Approve, deny, or remove members | No | Yes |
| Create ranks, statuses, and groups | No | Yes |
| Turn modules on or off for the agency | No | Yes |
| Review the agency's registered devices | No | Yes |
| Manage the agency's offline maps and calendar types | No | Yes |
| Change agency-wide settings and profile | No | Yes |
Permissions can be finer-grained than member-or-admin. Individual tools carry their own rights - the Add button on the incidents list, for example, appears only if your account has the add permission for that tool. If a button you expect is missing or greyed out, that is the permission system doing its job, not a fault.
Why a Module Is Missing or Dimmed
Work through these in order before contacting support.
| Symptom | Most likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A tile is missing entirely | The module is not enabled for your agency | Ask your agency administrator |
| A tile is dimmed | Enabled for the agency, not for your account | Ask your administrator for access |
| The whole app looks wrong | You are in the wrong active agency | Switch agency from the header |
| You see no agency data at all | Your membership is still Pending | Ask an administrator to approve it |
| An Add, Edit, or Save button is missing | You have view-only rights for that tool | Ask for the matching permission |
| The Agency Admin section is absent | You are not an administrator | Expected - no action needed |
Related Pages
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