THE AUTOMATIC VEHICLE MONITORING (AVM) SYSTEM INCORPORATES A DISPLAY INTERFACE THAT IMPROVES POLICE DISPATCHER EFFICIENCY IN ROUTINE TASKS AND IS PARTICULARLY USEFUL IN HANDLING EMERGENCY EVENTS SUCH AS A CHASE. THE CITY OF DALLAS PLANS TO PROVIDE VEHICLE LOCATION AND COMMUNICATION INFORMATION FOR UP TO 700 POLICE VEHICLES, WITH AN UPDATE PERIOD OF 2 SECONDS. THE AVM SYSTEM DESIGNED FOR THE CITY HAS A CAPACITY OF MORE THAN 5,000 VEHICLES OF ALL TYPES, INCLUDING LAND, WATER, AND AIRBORNE VEHICLES. THE COMMAND AND CONTROL CONFIGURATION PROVIDES THE DISPATCHER WITH FOUR DIFFERENT DISPLAY FORMATS ON A SINGLE INTERACTIVE DISPLAY CONSOLE: MAP DISPLAY; UNASSIGNED CALL DISPLAY; ASSIGNED CALL DISPLAY; AND PATROL ELEMENT STATUS DISPLAY. A KEYBOARD IS EMPLOYED TO MAKE VEHICLE ASSIGNMENTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH CALLS, TO CHANGE THE STATUS OF PATROL ELEMENTS, AND TO SEND MESSAGES TO PATROL ELEMENTS. THE BASIC PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED IN THE AVM SYSTEM IS THE TRANSLATION OF AVAILABLE STREET MAPS INTO A COMPUTER DATA BASE IN A COST-EFFECTIVE WAY. THE REQUIREMENT FOR MULTICOLOR DISPLAYS CAPABLE OF BEING UPDATED AND MODIFIED ON LINE IS SATISFIED BY USING RELATIVELY INEXPENSIVE COLOR TERMINALS AND A SPECIAL CHARACTER SYMBOL SET. A SEMIAUTOMATED MEANS IS THE MEDIUM BY WHICH PRINTED STREET MAPS ARE TRANSLATED INTO A COMPUTER DATA BASE THAT GENERATES MAPS ON THE DISPLAY SURFACE. IN ADDITION TO SATISFYING DISPATCH REQUIREMENTS, THE VISUAL PRESENTATION OF SERVICE REQUESTS BY LOCATION AND TYPE IS POSSIBLE. DETAILED CONSIDERATION IS GIVEN TO BOTH TABULAR AND MAP DISPATCHER DISPLAYS, COMPUTER MAP GENERATION TECHNIQUES, AND MAP STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL. ILLUSTRATIONS ARE PROVIDED. (DEP)