Mission Control

Mission Control

Mission Control is the live gate workspace in MyWatchtower for community gate staff. From a single screen you can look up properties and people, scan a driver's license or entry QR code, call a resident's priority contacts, open the gate, and record every entry as vehicles arrive.

Opening Mission Control

• Step 1: Sign in to MyWatchtower. Gate staff are taken to Mission Control automatically when they select Dashboard.
• Step 2: If you land on the staff dashboard instead, use the dashboard mode selector (or the Mission Control call-to-action, "Manage live gate operations") to switch views.
• Step 3: Choose your gate from the Access Point selector. Your selection is remembered on the device — see Record an Entry in Mission Control for Set Default and the post-entry reset.

The four panels

• Property Search — type an address, house number, or street name and select the matching property to load its people and contacts.
• Visitor Search — search the people tied to the selected property. For result tags, entry-schedule flags, and searching across a community group, see How to Find Properties and Residents in Mission Control.
• Priority Contacts — the property's contact list, in the order the household wants to be called when an unexpected visitor arrives. Start at the top and work down until someone answers.
• Entry Management — once a property and a visitor are selected, use Record Entry to log the result — see Record an Entry in Mission Control.

Visitor photos

When a visitor is selected, the entry panel shows their photo next to their details — select the photo to enlarge it. Photos appear in place of the automatically generated initials, so you can check that the person at the gate matches their record. If a visitor has no photo yet and your account has photo permission, you can upload one directly from the entry panel.

Scanning licenses and QR codes

• Step 1: Select Scan License and capture the barcode on the back of a driver's license, either with the device camera or the web scan dialog.
• Step 2: MyWatchtower matches the scanned details to an existing resident, guest, or vendor and fills in the property automatically. A scanned-data viewer lets you review what was read.
• Step 3: If there is no match, the form opens pre-filled with the scanned details so you can create the visitor manually.

Entry QR codes issued by residents can be scanned the same way. To add someone who is not yet in the system, see Create a Visitor at the Gate. Check the existing visitor list first to avoid duplicate records.

On phones and tablets, the scanner recovers on its own if the camera stalls, and it keeps your flashlight choice between scans. If camera access is blocked for the app on the device, Mission Control says so and offers an Open Settings shortcut so you can allow it.

Opening the gate

With an access point selected, the Open Gate control operates that gate directly, whether the community's hardware runs on Brivo or HID. For the desktop and mobile controls and the unavailable states, see Open a Gate from Mission Control.

Offline Mode

Staff can download an offline copy of the community database from the navigation footer. If the connection drops, Mission Control keeps working in read-only mode: you can still search properties and visitors, but Record Entry, visitor creation, QR processing, and license scanning are paused until you are back online.

Good habits at the gate

• Confirm the person in front of you matches the ID, photo, or record on screen before opening the gate.
• Use Priority Contacts whenever you are unsure — the household set that order for a reason.
• Record every entry and every denial so the entry log stays complete.
• Keep visitor details private and share them only as your duties require.