Create a callout
Spin up a mission in under a minute: incident type, status, staging locations, key points — and a CalTopo map that builds itself.
About 5 minutesStep 13 of 23 in team setup
Start the callout
Click Create Callout from the dashboard Quick Actions or the Callouts page. Choose the incident type — Missing Person, Evacuation, Evidence Search, Rescue / Recovery, or Other — then set the initial status:
- Draft — not active, still planning; invisible to members
- Investigation — gathering information
- Standby — team on alert, awaiting deploy
- Deploy — active deployment underway
Name it and describe it
Enter a Search / Incident Name and the initial report in the description. This is what members see first in the alert, so lead with what they need: who’s missing, where, since when.
Pin the staging area and command post
Every place on a callout is a pin, not just a name. Pick a Saved Location and it arrives pinned. For anywhere new, type the street address: suggestions appear as you type, or press Find. SAR21 drops a pin on a small map and asks you to check it; drag it or click the map until it sits on the right parking lot, then Use this pin. Switch the map to Satellite to see the lot itself. You can also paste coordinates (lat/long or UTM) or use your own position.
The line under each place tells you where you stand: Pinned means members can open it in their map app and, if you use CalTopo, it goes on the map; No pin yet means members will only see a name. Set the Respond By date and time so members know the response window.
A typed address is never turned into a pin on its own. Someone always looks at the map and confirms, so a wrong match cannot send a team to the wrong road.
Key locations
Under Key Locations, add the PLS (Place Last Seen) and LKP (Last Known Position) the same way: a label, then Find a place or coordinates, then confirm the pin. The IPP (Initial Planning Point) is usually one of them, so choose Same as PLS or Same as LKP, or set a separate point when planning calls for it.
Create — map included
Pick a primary radio channel, leave "Create CalTopo map for this callout" checked (if you connected CalTopo), and click Create Callout. SAR21 walks through the launch in front of you — creating the callout, building the CalTopo map from your team template, and placing the PLS/LKP markers — then lands you on the live callout page.
Your mission hub is ready
Seconds later you’re looking at the live callout page: the embedded CalTopo map with your key-location markers already placed, staging and command post details, subject information, team assignments, equipment, medical plan — and the real-time Response Tracker filling in as members answer the alert.
Each place shows its coordinates with a copy button and a directions menu for Google or Apple Maps, so a responder can paste staging into the map they trust or just drive. Teams without CalTopo get SAR21’s own map of the pinned places in the same spot; teams with CalTopo can switch between the two.
When a location moves
Staging fills up, the CP moves to the school: edit the callout and save. Because a place changed, SAR21 asks you to confirm what moves with it: whether the CalTopo marker follows, and whether the members responding or on scene get a push with the new place and your note. Every change is written to the callout’s change log, which you can open from the location card and which prints in the callout report.
The callout report itself is one click away under Actions, Print callout report: summary, timeline, locations and their changes, subjects, clues, teams and personnel.
