DHS, California demonstrate ECaTS system capabilties

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the state of California on Monday hosted a demonstration that featured the Emergency Call Tracking System, or ECaTS, dashboard solution.

The goal was to demonstrate how real-time public safety analytics can be used cooperatively between federal and state agencies for greater threat analysis, monitoring and response.

California has taken the lead in collaborative public safety monitoring by being the first to implement a real-time statewide monitoring system shared by both DHS and the California Office of Emergency Services. This enables a collaborative response to public safety incidents.

ECaTS provides a unique dashboard view of the 911 environment for both DHS and the state emergency services office: a view of the major wireless carrier towers as it relates to wireless 911 call delivery to a Public Safety Access Point (PSAP), and monitoring the 911 call volumes for each tower/sector assigned to each PSAP in the state.

“It’s an exciting time for public safety, as it’s now possible to use real-time monitoring and analytics to improve coordination of multiple government agencies to provide better services to the public," ECaTS operations director Christopher Duxler said. "ECaTS is privileged to be part of the ongoing exploration of federal and state coordination that our platform can offer and we look forward to the next phase of the project."