We’ve all heard phrases like: "It’s difficult to see the whole puzzle when you’re one of the pieces” or "You can’t get perspective if you’re stuck in the middle.”

What if you could get perspective, even when you were stuck in the middle?

Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) provides the unique opportunity to give multiple agencies (such as fire, police, and EMS agencies, traditionally in silos) a unified operating picture, also known as the same perspective, even when in the middle of a crisis.

Blue Clarity is currently promoting the CIVX TAK/ATAK for Smart Cities Challenge, sponsored by the Griffiss Institute. This challenge invites participants to transform the coordination of large-scale public events using advanced technology like ATAK and CivTAK. The challenge focuses on enhancing real-time communication, situational awareness, and seamless operations, empowering event organizers, security teams, and public services to manage everything from planning to crisis response effectively.

While ATAK was originally invented by the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), ATAK/TAK is being expanded for civilian use. At CIVTAK24, a conference dedicated to the civilian use of TAK, we held a Roundtable Exercise with first responders and subject-matter experts, where we worked through real-world examples, providing insights on the practical applications of TAK in real-world situations, identifying challenges, and suggesting improvements for better coordination and response.

The two scenarios from the Roundtable Exercise are detailed below, but feel free to submit solutions tailored to other scenarios:

Scenario A: Managing a natural disaster, such as an EF5 tornado, crossing state lines, and affecting densely-populated areas.

Scenario B: Managing safety and security at a large festival, held in a densely-populated area. A suspicious package has been detected at the event, potentially containing biohazard materials that could become airborne due to a breeze.

In our discussions, four key themes emerged about utilizing TAK.

Typically, different agencies (such as the fire department, hospitals, traffic, and police stations) all have complex communication, but are confined to their own systems, speaking their own languages, making it difficult to share information. TAK acts as a way to translate each system into a common language and aggregate the information in one place. Therefore, the first priority of TAK is to create a unified operating environment. TAK provides a shared situational awareness framework that connects various agencies and stake holders to access the same information.  

In our everyday lives, we use apps on our phones with all kinds of data, and get bombarded with notifications, but in an emergency, we would need the most crucial information immediately, similar to the integration of real-time data with TAK. Participants emphasized the value of real-time data integration to support decision-making, from tracking weather conditions to monitoring crowd movement.

We all have limited funds in our checking account, but we have to prioritize our resources for things like rent, our other bills, etc.Our first responders are thinking the same thing - how can we best prioritize resources and personnel? Teams noted that TAK could facilitate providing updated status reports and resource availability.

Just like communication is key to our relationships,TAK can be used to promote communication in challenging situations. TAK can maintain communication channels in challenging environments, such as urban centers or post-disaster zones, which is a critical advantage.

Help us give first responders the support they truly deserve. By harnessing the power of TAK to create innovative solutions, we can help build smarter, safer, and more resilient cities—so that those who rush toward danger to protect us can do their jobs more safely and effectively.

If you are interested in developing TAK solutions, we want to hear from you! Submit your short white papers and 2-3 minute video by November 4th.