Street Patrols in Iraq

When the war in Iraq started, there was an enormous information gap for the young officers leading the fight. Whereas the traditional military systems focused on feeding information up the chain of command, the new counterinsurgency war required information to be available and shared at the lowest ranks. The information consumers and creators were the sergeants and lieutenants who were building in-depth knowledge of the people and the terrain through daily interactions. DARPA - a Pentagon research agency - launched a crash development program and built TIGR (Tactical Ground Reporting System - pronounced “tiger”) - a map-centric application for sharing media-rich information on people, places and events. Since the introduction of the system to the first brigade in 2007, the use and content have grown exponentially, and the system has become a ‘must-have’ tool for all units in Iraq as well as those training for re-deployment in the US. This talk describes how TIGR is being used, technical challenges overcome while building the system, and the unique characteristics that differentiates TIGR from commercial map-based applications.