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ATAK stands for Android Team Awareness Kit.

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ATAK is an Android-based application that runs on a mobile device

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that can be a phone or a tablet.

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Going to do a boat infil on the bath.

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We're going to come over here around,

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skirt around this area, get into right near the marina

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and we're going to infil near this gate. We'll breach that gate.

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So first and foremost, ATAK allows for Blue Force Tracking.

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In the past we'd sit in a room amongst all the players in the room,

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multi agencies, and we'd have to pass the information back and forth

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where the people are at. Nowadays we can put that on a map overlay.

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You have the knowledge of where your other law enforcement

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partners are at, whether they be a municipality,

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a sheriff's office, state, police or other federal entities,

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just having the knowledge of where they're located,

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you know if you're going to potentially cross paths or not, so you're prepared for that.

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CBP will be able to see what Coast Guard is doing.

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Coast Guard will be able to see what HSI is doing,

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out to U.S. Secret Service, outside into Justice and the State Department

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through the FBI to include state and local, and tribal law enforcement.

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Simply put, it'll allow DHS components to talk to each other,

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and talk to our state and local partners.

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The capability that ATAK brings to bear is essentially changing how we do our mission

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at least in terms of how we exchange information.

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It allows our agents to both receive and give real-time information

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that can be video, that can be still pictures, that can be instant messaging and chat.

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One example of how ATAK can be used in the field is happening right now in Texas

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to support Hurricane Harvey rescue and security operations.

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A broad number of different agencies have deployed to Texas

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to provide rescue and security operations.

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Going in, many of those agencies could not talk to each other,

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had no awareness of where their mutual forces were.

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ATAK has helped save countless lives during the flooding and devastation of Hurricane Harvey

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and it has also given the first responders a platform to share information

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that is real time and necessary for them to perfrom their duties.

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Our guys will set position down this corridor right here, on the black side of the building

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and wait for you guys to infil on birds.

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We'll go to... the half will go out to the south and we'll just put ourselves on a 5-minute hold

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and wait for you guys to make the call.
Copy that.

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Before ATAK, agents would have to pass GPS coordinates over a phone, over voice comms.

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Now all that information could be transmitted instantaneously.

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You can also drop points on a map, not only a pin of where the threat is at,

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but we can also drop a pin or a icon of a helicopter or a boat,

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or multiple other icons that are in there to describe where we're going to be

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where our planned routes are at, and where the bad guys are currently at.

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And that can be done from a helicopter watching,

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from a camera at 33,000 feet, to point to us on the ground exactly where that individual is

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instead of trying to articulate over the radio.

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ATAK has the capability for us to also watch real time video from either public pole cameras,

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public IP cameras, street cameras, traffic lights, or from some of our partner agencies' helicopter feeds.

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Situational awareness is not only knowing where your element is, but any other friendly force as well.

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And, if you're able to, knowing where the bad guys are.

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Almost everything that I've ever done, real world, that involved multiple agencies -

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we can never talk on the same frequencies.

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And that can never get ironed out prior to a national emergency

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because you can't predict these things happening.

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And even after we have one, we all go back to ops normal, and no one goes back and tries to

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work out those kinks before we have one.

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So knowing that we're going to run into this, time after time,

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having an ATAK allows us to get ahead of that problem.

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Because even if we can't talk, we can view. And I'd rather not talk anyway.

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I'd rather just be able to look down, see who is where on the objective, and move out.

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The second thing would be under the umbrella of pre-mission planning:

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the ability to gauge elevation. OK, so you're doing your map reconnaissance.

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You can tell where the high points are, the low points are,

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the places that are wide open that you would want to completely avoid, the terrain features,

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so you can see why this has good cover and concealment. Whether you're on a helicopter

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or you're in the mountains, sometimes the radio goes down.

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You are able to send messages, so quick messages. Not that a lot of operators on the X

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and on target moving are want to... going to want to pull something out

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and start typing to each other, but even something quick or a pre-designated set of brevity codes

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you can come up with in your pre-mission planning. So you're just taking the screen down, hitting a B,

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well that B equals something that only the the team members know.
You have that ability with ATAK.

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All these things are very valuable for people like me, on the ground, conducting operations.

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Two of the larger ones that we've used it for, one was the papal visit to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

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and the other was the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

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For both events we had a counter-sniper element

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scattered throughout the city, placed in strategic locations

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and they were able to send back real-time pictures and video.

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So we therefore had a better picture of what was going on

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in the city of Cleveland with any civil disturbances or protests.

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So at the multi-agency command center they were able to then better decide

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what resources were going to be needed, or potentially needed.

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In terms of usability, it's relatively easy to pick up. Its core functionality is intuitive.

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Everybody that I have talked to and everybody that I have trained says it is extremely easy.

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Most people take about five minutes for me to train them up on the basic features.

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DHS S&T has been a godsend to HSI.

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The availability of research dollars has been incredible.

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We would not have been in place we are, using ATAK, had it not been for DHS S&T.

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So our partnership with S&T is immensely valuable.

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We've developed a solid relationship with the APEX Border Situational Awareness Program

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which has allowed us to deploy ATAK to targeted environments,

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receive user feedback, make amendments to the application,

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with the objective of eventually rolling that out to the field on a larger scale.

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Ultimately, I believe ATAK is going to make our agents safer and more effective

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and enable them to make better informed decisions.

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This tool can allow us to respond quickly to a threat,

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get oriented quickly, and move on it, because time is of the essence.