2Code Enforcement Activities for Public Users

The Public User Landing Page for Code Enforcement

The public user landing page for code enforcement is the entry point for public users who want to report an issue, track issues that they reported, see recent issues in the agency’s jurisdiction, or pay a citation.

The banner at the top of the page includes a title and a short message. After the message, a Read More link gives public users access to additional information that you set up.

For information on configuring these elements of the welcome banner, see Setting Up Agency-Level Options for Code Enforcement.

On the landing page, public users have access to these actions:

Tile or Button	Who Can Use	Description
Report an Issue	Registered users. Anonymous users can see this tile, but they are prompted to sign in during the issue reporting process.	Report an issue to the agency. During the reporting process, the public user identifies the type of issue, provides the issue location, describes the issue, and answers any additional questions that the agency has configured. See Reporting Issues.
Track Issues	Registered users. This button is visible only after the user signs in.	View status and other information about issues that the user reported. See Tracking Issues.
View Recent Issues	Anonymous and registered users.	View a map with markers that identify the locations of recent issues, or view a searchable list of the issues. See Viewing Recent Issues.
Pay Citation	Registered users. Anonymous users are prompted to sign in before starting the payment process.	Make an online payment for a code enforcement citation. See Paying Citations.

Reporting Issues

When reporting an issue, a public user identifies the type of issue, provides the issue location, describes the issue, and answers any additional questions that the agency has configured.

Note: Agency staff can also report issues. To do this, go to the agency springboard and select Report an Issue in the I Want To field, then click Go.

Here is a summary of the issue reporting process:

On the public user landing page, the user clicks the Report an Issue tile.
The Select an Issue Type page appears. It displays tiles for the agency’s issue types. Click the small chevron icon in the bottom right corner of a tile to flip the tile over and read a description of the issue type.
The user chooses the type of issue:
1. The user selects an issue type tile.
  The page title changes to the name of the selected issue type (for example, Neighborhood Blight), and the page displays new tiles that represent issue subtypes. Again, the user can flip a tile over to read a description of the issue subtype.
2. The user selects an issue subtype tile.
If the user is not already signed in, they are now prompted to sign in.
After this point, the user navigates through the remaining steps using Next and Previous buttons.

The user can’t go back to choose a different issue type or subtype. If the issue wasn’t properly classified, the user needs to cancel the report and start again.
On the Provide the Location of the Issue page, the user identifies the location using a searchable map.
- A crosshairs icon on the map shows the selected location. If location sharing is active, the user’s current location appears by default.
- The user can search for an address or location, and the map adjusts to place the specified location in the crosshairs.
- The user can pan and zoom the map to more precisely identify the issue location, and the search bar automatically displays the address or the coordinates of the location in the map crosshairs.
  Sometimes the location on the map is identified using a range such as 100-120 Main Street. The user can update the address manually if necessary.
- The user can additionally enter additional details about the location such as an apartment number or directions to a specific location at an address.
  This information is optional if there is an address or location coordinates. When there is no address or location coordinates, additional address details are required.
- If the location is outside of the agency’s boundary, a message instructs the user to change the location to one inside the agency’s limits.
  The user will not be able to submit an issue with a location that is outside the agency’s boundary.
The user clicks Next.
On the Tell Us What’s Going On page, the user describes the issue and optionally attaches photos, videos, audio files, or other attachments.
The user clicks the Next button.
On the Just a Few More Questions page, the user answers any additional questions defined by the agency.

This step includes a Does this issue pose a health hazard or public safety risk? switch to indicate the urgency of the issue. Agencies can add additional questions as well.
The user clicks Next.
On the Provide Contact Information page, the user verifies their name, email, and phone information or chooses to hide this information.
Default contact information comes from the user’s account. The user can keep these values, modify them, or turn on the Hide my contact information switch. Regardless of whether the user hides the information from agency staff, the information is never visible to the public.

Note: If the agency configures the system to require contact information from the person reporting the issue, the Hide my contact information switch is hidden and contact information is required. For information about this configuration option, see Setting Up Agency-Level Options for Code Enforcement.
The user clicks Next.
On the read-only Review page, the user reviews all of the issue information.
To make changes, the user can click the Edit button to make the Review page editable or use the Previous icon to return to earlier pages.

Note: The user can’t change the issue type or subtype after continuing past those steps.
The user clicks Submit.
A confirmation message with the issue number appears.

Tracking Issues

Public users can view a list of issues that they reported, and they can see status and other information about the issue.

Note: Although public users see the term issues, the underlying objects are incidents. Even if a case is created based on the incident, the case does not appear in the list of the user’s own issues.

To view a list of issues that they reported, public users follow these steps:

The user clicks the Track Your Issues button on the code enforcement landing page. This button is visible only after the user signs in.
The Issues page appears.

The user reviews the following information for the issues on the list:

Page Element	Description
Issue ID	Displays two rows of information. The incident ID appears in the first row. The incident type and subtype appear in the second row.
Location	Displays the address for the issue.
Description	Displays the original issue description that was supplied by the person who reported the incident.
Status	Displays the incident status. These are the possible incident statuses: Reported Inspection Compliance Violation Closed Duplicate Void When an incident results in a notice of violation and the creation of a case, the incident status is based on the case status. So even though the public users do not have direct access to case data, the incident status conveys information about the overall status of the issue. Note that incident statuses are less granular than case statuses. For example, if an incident is in Violation status, the corresponding case could be in any of several statuses such as Violation, Mandatory Abatement, or Citation.
Attachments	Displays an attachment icon. Clicking the icon opens a window with a carousel view of any photos, videos, or other attachments that were uploaded as part of the original issue report.
Reported On	Displays the date that the issue was originally submitted.

To view details for a specific issue, the user clicks the issue to access the Issues page.
The Issues page has these sections:
- A map that displays the issue location.
- A Details section that shows the issue address, description, and whether the issue was reporting as posing a health hazard or public safety risk.
  If the person who reported the issue supplied their name, email, and phone, then that information also appears.
- An Attachments section that displays a carousel view of any photos, videos, or other attachments that were uploaded as part of the original issue report.
- A History section that displays the incident’s status history. This section lists the current and previous statuses, along with the date that the status was applied and, if applicable, the reason for the status change.
To return to the issues list, the user clicks the Back icon in the header.

Viewing Recent Issues

Any public user, including anonymous users. can view your agency’s recent issues using the View Recent Issues tile on the code enforcement landing page. Users can view the issues on a map or in a list. Your agency defines which issues appear on the map.

Overview of Recent Issues

The recent issues that are visible to the public are cases, which represent verified violations. Incidents are not visible to the general public.

To define which cases appear on the View Recent Issues page, agencies use the Code Enforcement Options page to define the period that is considered “recent.” They also choose whether to show all cases that were reported within that time period or only cases that are still active.

Viewing Recent Issues

To view recent issues, public users follow these steps:

On the code enforcement landing page, the public user clicks the View Recent Issues tile.
The View Recent Issues page appears in map view.
The user can employ the search, zoom, and pan functionality of the map to show a specific area.
An address search bar appears in one corner of the map. This search centers the map on the specified location and shows markers for all issues in the display area.

A case number search field appears above the map. This search shows issue markers for any cases that match the search criteria and hides all other markers. Note that users cannot search using an incident ID, only a case ID.
Review the issues markers on the map.
Colored markers identify issue locations. A number on a marker represents the number of issues for that specific location. Markers without numbers have just one issue.

When the zoom level would normally cause location markers to overlap, the markers for the individual locations are combined into a cluster marker. Clusters appear as double circles, with a dark center and a lighter border. The number on the cluster marker represents the total number of issues for the included locations. As the user zooms in closer, individual location markers replace the cluster marker.

For more information, see Viewing Map Markers.
To view issue details, the user clicks an issue marker to open a pop-up panel with more information:
- The issue ID (case ID) and the status appear in bold.
- The issue description, reported date, and location also appear.
- If the location has multiple issues, the user can see how many issues exists and which one is currently visible—for example, 1 of 3.Previous and Next controls enable the user to page through the issues.
- A Zoom To link zooms the map while keeping the issue centered.
To toggle between the map view and a list view, the user clicks the List View and Map View icons.

The list displays the same information about each issue. It additionally displays the issue type and subtype.

Paying Citations

The code enforcement landing page for public users includes an option for paying citations.

Note: The person paying the citation must be a registered user. For information on user registration, see The Public User Registration Process.

To pay a citation, a public user follows these steps:

On the code enforcement landing page, the user clicks the Pay a Citation tile.
The user signs in if prompted.
On the Pay Citation page, the user enters the citation ID and clicks the Search icon.

Citation information, including the amount and the due date, appear on the page.
The user clicks the Pay button.
On the Checkout page, the user chooses a payment method and clicks the Make Payment button.
The user follow the instructions for the chosen payment method.