WATCHDESK

WATCHDESK is a web-based application designed to handle the day-to-day administrative work that every volunteer fire station deals with — tracking members, logging call responses, managing certifications, calculating LOSAP and State Tax service credit, and generating the reports and forms that PG County and the State of Maryland require.

It was built to be easy to use from day one. Members sign in with their existing department email (Google Workspace or Microsoft 365) — no extra passwords, no software to install, no training required. It works in any web browser on a computer, tablet, or phone.

Each station gets its own secure, separate space within the system. Your data stays yours — no other station can see your member information, call logs, or reports. WATCHDESK is provided free of charge to participating stations.

WATCHDESK maintains a full member roster for your station. Each member record includes:

• Personal information — name, date of birth, address, phone numbers, email
• Membership details — membership type, status, role, rank, join date, PGFD ID
• Emergency contacts — name, relationship, phone, address, email
• Driver's license — state, number, class
• Clothing sizes — t-shirt, hoodie, job shirt, pants
• SSN (last 4 digits only) — encrypted at rest, required for LOSAP forms

When a member signs in for the first time with their department email, WATCHDESK automatically creates their member record using the name from their Google or Microsoft account. Station admins can then fill in the rest of their information. The roster is searchable and sortable by any column.

Every response is logged with the PGFD call number, date, time, address, box area, responding unit, call type, disposition, hospital transport location (if applicable), and notes. You can also record the time the unit cleared.

For each response, you assign crew members — tracking exactly who was on each call and what role they served. This crew data feeds directly into LOSAP points, State Tax credit, and the Calls by Member report.

Units are organized by classification (Suppression, EMS, Command), so reports can be filtered by unit type. The system supports all your station's apparatus.

Record meetings with the date, time, name, type, and notes. Each meeting type is configurable by your station — you define the meeting types that matter to you (business meetings, officer meetings, auxiliary meetings, etc.).

Meeting types can be flagged as voting meetings, which enables a separate Voting Meeting Attendance report for tracking quorum and election eligibility.

Attendance is tracked per meeting. Members can also submit their own meeting records through the self-service workflow (described below) for review and approval by station admins.

Log drills with the date, start and end time, topic, instructor, and notes. Attendees are tracked for each drill. Drill attendance feeds into both the LOSAP point calculation and the State Tax credit calculation.

Record external training with the date, name, type, hours, location, instructor, and notes. Training types are configurable by your station. The total training hours feed into both the LOSAP and State Tax point calculations.

Members can submit their own training records through the self-service workflow, upload supporting documents (certificates, completion records), and submit them for admin review.

Track member hours by type — Duty Crew, Stand-By, Sleep-In, or any custom type your station defines. Each type can have a default hour value (for example, a Duty Crew shift defaults to 4 hours, a Sleep-In defaults to 8 hours), but values can always be adjusted.

Hours can be entered in batch — one form submission can create records for multiple members at once (for example, logging all members who worked a standby shift).

Hours feed into the LOSAP and State Tax calculations with specific rules for how different types are scored (detailed in the LOSAP and State Tax sections below). Members can view their own hours summary on their profile page.

Record positions held by members with a description, position type, start date, and end date. The system automatically calculates the number of months served.

Position types are configurable by your station. Positions whose type contains Chief, President, or Commissioner are automatically classified as officer positions, which earn higher LOSAP points. All other positions are classified as non-officer positions with a lower point rate.

Members who are called to active military duty can have those dates recorded in WATCHDESK. Military service earns LOSAP points based on the number of months of service that overlap with the LOSAP year, subject to a lifetime cap of 48 months.

Members can submit their own military service records through the self-service workflow for admin review and approval.

Collateral duty covers work performed for the station outside of regular call responses — things like equipment maintenance, fundraising events, community outreach, station cleaning, etc. Each record captures the date, hours, supervising officer, and a description.

Collateral duty hours feed into both the LOSAP and State Tax point calculations. Members can submit their own records through the self-service workflow.

WATCHDESK tracks three types of certifications with expiration monitoring:

SCBA Fit Test

Records the expiration date for each member's SCBA (Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus) fit test. Status is shown as VALID or EXPIRED based on the current date.

CPR Card

A dedicated module for tracking CPR card records with expiration dates, card numbers, and provider information. Each record includes the member, issue date, expiration date, and notes. Status is displayed as valid or expired with the number of days until expiration.

EMT Certification

Tracks both the State certification and National Registry (NREMT) certification with separate expiration dates, certification numbers, and cert levels (First Responder, EMT-B, EMT-P). Members can submit their own EMT certs through the self-service workflow and upload supporting documents.

Every station has its own internal training program with different sign-off levels that members must complete. WATCHDESK lets each station define its own turnover phases — the specific milestones that members progress through as they complete station training.

Station admins configure their turnover phases through the Lookup Tables page. Phases can be added, renamed, reordered, or deactivated at any time. For example, one station might define phases like:

• Probie (Probationary)
• Firefighter 1 through 4
• EMT
• Vehicle qualifications (Support, Ambulance, Engine, Tower)

While another station might use a completely different set. The system adapts to whatever structure your station uses.

For each member, admins record the completion date for each turnover phase. The list view dynamically generates columns for your station's configured phases and shows completion dates highlighted in green. You can filter by status (all phases complete vs. incomplete) to quickly see who still has outstanding requirements.

WATCHDESK includes a full apparatus management module for tracking your station's vehicles. Each apparatus record includes:

• Identification — call sign, apparatus name, unit classification (Suppression, EMS, Command), and unit type (Engine, Truck, Ambulance, etc.)
• Vehicle details — VIN, make, model, year, fuel type, seating capacity, and status (In Service, Out of Service, Reserve, Retired)
• Custom fields — station admins can define their own additional fields (e.g., pump capacity, water tank size, city fuel codes)

Mileage Tracking

Log mileage readings for each apparatus over time. WATCHDESK displays mileage history with interactive trend charts so you can monitor usage patterns and plan for preventive maintenance.

Apparatus Checks

Create configurable inspection checklists (daily engine checks, weekly truck inspections, etc.) and assign them to specific apparatus. Members complete checks on their phone or tablet with pass/fail/not-checked for each item, plus notes for any deficiencies. Admins can review completed checks and track compliance across the fleet.

Unit classifications defined here are also used when logging call responses, allowing reports to be filtered by unit type.

WATCHDESK sends automatic notifications across three channels so admins and members always know when action is needed:

Approval Workflow Notifications

When a member submits a record for approval, the station admin receives an email and optional push notification. When the admin approves or rejects, the member is notified with the decision and any rejection reason.

Certification Expiration Reminders

Automated daily checks notify members when their Fit Test, CPR card, or EMT certification is approaching expiration — giving them time to renew before it lapses.

Apparatus Service Reminders

When an apparatus is due for scheduled maintenance based on mileage or date thresholds, admins receive automatic reminders.

Push Notifications

Members can enable browser push notifications on their phone or desktop to receive instant alerts even when they don't have WATCHDESK open. Push notifications are separate from email — members control both independently from their profile page.

SMS Notifications Premium

SMS messaging is available as a premium add-on, currently powering staffing-change alerts and the paging system (see those sections below). Members control their own opt-out from their profile, and every SMS sent is recorded in the SMS Logs tab of the Activity Logs page for audit and troubleshooting.

Every member can view their own profile page, which serves as a personal dashboard showing:

• Profile photo — members upload their own photo, visible on their profile and member detail pages
• Certification status — Fit Test, CPR Card, and EMT cert status with expiration dates and days remaining
• Call statistics — total responses for the current award period and lifetime, broken down by unit type (Suppression, EMS)
• Hours statistics — total hours for the current period and lifetime, broken down by type
• LOSAP points — current LOSAP year points with a full breakdown by category, showing actual earned vs. capped values
• State Tax points — current calendar year points with category breakdown and qualification status
• Notification preferences — toggle email and push notifications by category
• Recent calls — a quick view of their most recent responses

Members can also update certain personal information themselves (address, phone numbers, emergency contacts, clothing sizes, driver's license) without needing to go through an admin.

The Traffic Cameras page connects each member to the Maryland State Highway Administration's CHART camera network — the same feeds dispatchers use to monitor highway conditions across the state. Members can scout traffic before responding to a working incident or planning a non-emergency move.

• Browse ~500 cameras across Maryland, automatically sorted by distance from the user's current location (geolocation, with permission).
• Filter by region — Capital, Central, Eastern, Western, or Southern Maryland.
• Save personal favorites — members pick their own frequently-watched cameras for quick access from My Traffic Cams.
• Live video embeds — each saved camera shows the live feed directly from chart.maryland.gov inside WATCHDESK, no extra apps.

WATCHDESK pulls your CAD dispatches into a live station alerts queue — either through an Active911 webhook or a dedicated CAD email/SMS feed — so the call your crew just ran is already waiting to be logged.

• Two ingestion paths — connect Active911 directly, or point a CAD email address or dedicated text number at WATCHDESK. Both land in the same queue and are de-duplicated automatically.
• One-tap response logging — turn an alert into a response record pre-filled with the call number, type, and units, then add the crew.
• Career Call — log a crew-less, auto-approved career-staff response in one click. It still counts at the station level but is excluded from individual LOSAP, State Tax, and attendance credit.
• Bulk actions — select multiple alerts to Career Call or dismiss them all at once.
• CAD type mapping — map your CAD's call types to WATCHDESK response types once, and every future dispatch is categorized for you.

The Hospital Status page shows live MIEMSS/EDAS status for the hospitals in your county, so transport decisions are based on what's open right now.

• Live alert status — current emergency-department, yellow/red alert, and reroute status, refreshed on a short cache with a graceful fallback.
• Specialty search — filter for the capability you need — cardiac, stroke, trauma, and more.
• Directions to the bay — turn-by-turn directions to each hospital's ambulance bay, not just the front door.

Stream live OpenMHz radio feeds for the systems that serve your county, right from inside WATCHDESK — useful at the console, in quarters, or following a working incident.

• County-matched systems — members automatically see the radio systems for their station's county.
• One tap to listen — play in-app, or open in a new tab where the feed requires it.

RSVP Events runs your banquets, fundraisers, open houses, and drills end to end — from the sign-up link to the reminder text the night before.

• Public or member RSVPs — share a public magic link (no login required) or collect RSVPs from members. Each event gets a printable QR code.
• Calendar invites — confirmations and reminders include one-click Google and Outlook calendar links.
• Automatic reminders — a reminder goes out 24 hours before the event, and admins can add an RSVP on a member's behalf.
• Spam-resistant — a hidden honeypot field keeps bots out of your public sign-up form.

For Prince George's County departments, the Qualifications tracker follows each member's progress along the county's professional-development progressions.

• Defined progressions — the county's qualification paths are built in, with each member's current level tracked over time.
• Per-member progress — see where each member stands and what's left to reach the next level.

Member History gives officers a private, dated timeline of the moments that matter in a member's career — the institutional memory that usually lives in someone's head or a paper file.

• Seven categories — awards, promotions, disciplinary actions, suspensions, leave, family events, and general notes.
• Timeline with filters — review a member's history as a timeline, filtered by category, with file attachments where you need documentation.
• Never member-visible — these records are staff-only and are never shown to the member themselves.

Departments that run multiple houses under a single company can group members and apparatus by house while keeping LOSAP and reporting unified across the whole department.

• Per-house grouping — assign members to their house; the sidebar and login reflect the house code, and the rest of the app filters by it.
• Unified dispatch — every house's CAD units route into the one parent alerts queue, so nothing falls through the cracks at ingestion.
• One LOSAP department — reporting and credit stay department-wide, matching how the county treats your company.

WATCHDESK includes a self-service system that allows regular members (not just admins) to submit certain types of records on their own. This reduces the administrative burden on station leadership while maintaining oversight. The following record types support self-service submission:

• Training (external courses and classes)
• Meetings
• Hours & Standby Time
• Call Responses
• Military Service
• Collateral Duty
• EMT Certifications
• CPR Cards

How the Workflow Works

1. Draft: The member creates a new record. While it's in draft status, they can edit it and upload supporting documents (like a training certificate or course completion record).
2. Submit: When they're ready, the member submits the record. Its status changes to "pending."
3. Review: Station admins see all pending records in a combined Pending Approvals page with counts for each type. They can review the details and any uploaded attachments.
4. Approve or Reject: The admin approves or rejects the record. Approved records count toward reports and point calculations just like admin-entered records.

Records entered directly by a station admin are automatically approved and skip this workflow entirely.

Every WATCHDESK installation comes with a built-in help center at /guide that shows each user only the topics relevant to what they can actually do in the system. There's nothing to install, nothing to set up — new members get an instant orientation that matches their role.

Five role-specific guides

• Member Guide — profile setup, self-service submissions, notification preferences, and where to find your points.
• Approver Guide — how to review pending submissions, approve or reject with feedback, and use the pending-approvals dashboard.
• Manager Guide — recording activity for other members, managing lookup tables, and using batch entry tools.
• Certifier Guide — year-end LOSAP and State Tax certification workflows, including the prior-service intake.
• Admin Guide — station settings, Manage Access, premium feature configuration, and SMS recipients.

Station Links

A shared bookmark board for your station. Admins curate links to county resources, dispatch systems, SOPs, Active911, eMeds, and any other external tools your members need access to. Links are categorized and always one click away from the sidebar.

Station Documents

Upload and organize station documents like SOGs, policies, operating guidelines, blank forms, and reference materials. Each document is categorized and available to all members. Supports file replacement to keep documents current without changing URLs.

WATCHDESK includes a full reporting suite organized into three groups:

Activity Reports

• Calls by Member — a pivot table showing each member's call count by month, filterable by date range and unit type (All, EMS, Suppression, Command). Default range: award year (Oct 1 – Sep 30).
• Meeting Attendance — a pivot table showing meeting attendance by member and month, filterable by meeting type. Default range: calendar year.
• Voting Meeting Attendance — same format, automatically filtered to show only meeting types flagged as voting meetings.
• Hours by Member — a pivot table showing total hours by member and month, filterable by hours type. Default range: award year.

PG County LOSAP Reports

• LOSAP Points Report — the full 9-category LOSAP point calculation for every member (detailed below).
• LOSAP Form 1024 — automatically generates a printable PG County Form #1024 for each member, one per page, ready for submission.
• LOSAP Certification — evaluates and certifies which members qualified for LOSAP credit in a given year.

Maryland State Tax Reports

• State Tax Points Report — the full 7-category State Tax point calculation for every member (detailed below).
• State Tax Form — automatically generates a printable tax credit form for each qualifying member.
• State Tax Certification — evaluates and certifies which members qualified for the Maryland volunteer tax credit.

Station-Specific Reports

Beyond the standard suite, WATCHDESK can host custom reports tailored to a single station's bylaws and workflows — for example printable meeting sign-in sheets, a member outreach list ranking who hasn't been around lately, or a voting-eligibility roster that applies a department's exact attendance rules. These appear only for the station they're built for, and we can add new ones on request.

The Length of Service Awards Program (LOSAP) is a service credit and pension program for volunteer firefighters in Prince George's County. Each member earns points across 9 activity categories during the LOSAP year, which runs from July 1 through June 30.

Each category has a maximum cap. A member needs 50 or more total capped points to qualify for a year of LOSAP service credit.

WATCHDESK also tracks prior LOSAP service — years of service credit that a member earned before the system was in use. This allows stations to maintain a complete service history for each member. Prior service records include the LOSAP year, the member, and whether they qualified. The total number of qualifying years (current + prior) appears on each member's LOSAP Form 1024.

The LOSAP Form 1024 is the official PG County form that stations must submit each year to certify which members qualified for LOSAP service credit. Before WATCHDESK, this meant manually calculating points from spreadsheets and hand-filling a paper form for every single member.

WATCHDESK eliminates that entirely. The form pulls data directly from your call logs, meeting attendance, drill records, training hours, collateral duty, positions, military service, and prior service records. The numbers on the form are the same numbers you see on the LOSAP Points Report — no manual transcription, no copy errors.

The form layout is designed to match the official PG County form, so it can be printed and submitted as-is. Forms are generated one per page for easy printing and distribution.

The Maryland Volunteer Firefighter Tax Credit allows qualifying volunteer firefighters to receive a state income tax credit. WATCHDESK calculates eligibility using 7 activity categories over the calendar year (January 1 through December 31).

A member needs 50 or more total capped points to qualify for the tax credit.

Before WATCHDESK, many stations would calculate eligibility by hand from a mix of spreadsheets and paper logs, then manually fill out forms for each qualifying member. That process is error-prone and time-consuming — especially for stations with 30 or more active members.

WATCHDESK does all of it automatically. Because the same data that members and admins enter throughout the year (responses, meetings, drills, training, hours, etc.) is used to calculate the points, the forms are always accurate and consistent with your records.

Both the LOSAP and State Tax systems include a formal certification process. Here's how it works:

1. Select the year — choose the LOSAP year (e.g., "24-25") or tax year (e.g., "2025") from a dropdown. LOSAP years go back to 2002; tax years go back to 2015.
2. Run the evaluation — the system calculates points for every member and splits them into two groups: eligible (50+ points) and ineligible (under 50 points).
3. Review the results — you can review who qualifies and who doesn't before committing.
4. Certify — clicking the certify button records the qualified/not-qualified status for each member, along with who certified it and when. This creates the official record.

Certification can be re-run if data changes — it will update the existing records. The number of qualified LOSAP years for each member is tracked and appears on their LOSAP Form 1024.

WATCHDESK supports file attachments across all major record types — members, responses, meetings, drills, training, hours, certifications (fit test, CPR, EMT), collateral duty, military service, positions, station training, apparatus, and prior LOSAP service.

This allows members and admins to upload supporting documents: training certificates, course completion records, military orders, certification cards, apparatus photos, and any other relevant files.

Files are securely stored in Google Cloud Storage with file type validation (whitelist of allowed types, file extension cross-checking, and magic byte verification to prevent disguised file uploads). Admins can view and download attachments when reviewing pending submissions.

Station admins have access to all regular member features plus additional management tools:

Station Dashboard

Officers land on an at-a-glance dashboard that pulls the numbers that matter into one view — active members, recent call volume, attendance, certifications coming due, pending approvals, and more — so you can see how the station is doing without running a single report.

Pending Approvals

A single page that combines all eight approval workflows (Training, Meetings, Hours, Responses, Military Service, EMT Certs, Collateral Duty, CPR Cards) into tabbed sections. Each tab shows a count badge so admins can see at a glance how many records need review. Expandable detail rows let admins review attachments and details inline without navigating away.

Lookup Tables

Many dropdown menus in WATCHDESK are configurable. Station admins can add, edit, deactivate, and reorder values for:

• Meeting types (with a voting meeting flag)
• Hours types (with default hour values)
• Position types
• Training types
• Turnover phases (station training sign-off levels)
• Membership types, statuses, roles, and ranks
• Response types, dispositions, and hospital destinations
• Crew roles
• Clothing sizes

Activity Logs

Every change made in WATCHDESK is logged with the user's email, the action taken, what was changed, and when. Station admins can view and filter this audit trail to see all activity across the station, including an SMS log for messaging activity.

Manage Access

Assign granular roles to members — station admin, certify, delete, and specific approval permissions (approve training, approve meetings, approve hours, etc.). Control exactly who can do what in your station.

Station Announcements

Post info, warning, or alert banners that appear at the top of every page for your station's members. Useful for meeting reminders, schedule changes, or important notices.

Dark Mode

WATCHDESK includes full dark mode support. It automatically follows your device's system preference, or you can toggle it manually. Every page, table, form, and report is designed for comfortable viewing in both light and dark environments — perfect for late-night duty shifts.

Progressive Web App (PWA)

Install WATCHDESK directly to your phone's home screen from your browser — no app store required. The PWA version launches instantly, supports push notifications, and looks and feels like a native app. Works on iPhone, Android, and desktop.

Global Search

Press Cmd+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows) from any page to open an instant search overlay. Search across members, responses, meetings, training, and more without navigating away from what you're doing.

WATCHDESK has a clear access model with two levels:

Regular Members

• View their own profile with real-time LOSAP and State Tax points
• Submit training, meetings, hours, responses, military service, collateral duty, EMT certs, and CPR cards for approval
• View the member roster and response logs
• Edit their own personal information (address, phone, emergency contacts, etc.)
• Upload file attachments to their self-service submissions

Station Admins

• Everything regular members can do, plus:
• Add, edit, and delete records across all modules
• Approve or reject member submissions
• Run reports and certify LOSAP and State Tax years
• Generate printable LOSAP Form 1024 and State Tax forms
• Manage lookup table values
• View activity logs

Getting your station set up on WATCHDESK is straightforward:

1. Identity provider setup — your station's IT contact follows a short setup guide (about 10–15 minutes) to create OAuth credentials in your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 account. Detailed instructions are available at watchdesk.org/setup.
2. Send credentials — your IT contact sends the Client ID and Client Secret to the WATCHDESK administrator, who configures your station in the system.
3. Members sign in — once configured, members go to watchdesk.org, select your station from the dropdown, and sign in with their department email. Their member record is created automatically on first login.
4. Start using it — station admins can begin entering data, and members can start submitting records through self-service right away. No training required.