Homeland/National Security

Announcing Our New Blog Series: Exploring the Role of GIS in Homeland Security

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are revolutionizing how homeland security organizations enhance safety, resilience, and operational effectiveness in a rapidly evolving global threat landscape. By enabling real-time threat management, improving situational awareness, and fostering cross-agency collaboration, GIS technology is transforming how security operations are planned, executed, and enhanced across the Homeland Security Enterprise.

To better understand GIS’s transformative power, we’re launching a multi-part blog series exploring its application across key areas of the homeland security enterprise. Each installment will focus on a specific theme or pattern, presenting complex concepts as actionable insights tailored for security professionals in law enforcement, intelligence, defense, emergency management, and related fields.

What to Expect from This Series

Over the coming weeks, we will publish a series of focused blog posts explaining ArcGIS and its role in homeland security. These posts highlight how GIS empowers security organizations by operationalizing spatial data, conducting complex analysis, and providing unmatched situational awareness through cross-agency collaboration. Topics will include:

Who Should Follow This Series?

This series is tailored for security professionals and decision-makers across the Homeland Security Enterprise, including international, federal, state, and local agencies engaged in defense, law enforcement, intelligence, emergency management, border, maritime, and transportation operations, corporate security, public health, cybersecurity, and critical infrastructure protection. Whether new to GIS or looking to deepen your understanding of its applications, this series will provide valuable insights and practical takeaways.

Join Us on This Journey

We’re excited to share how GIS technology revolutionizes security frameworks across the homeland security enterprise.  Stay tuned for the first installment, where we’ll introduce the core principles of ArcGIS and its vital role in homeland security.

About the author

Carl Walter

Carl Walter is the Global Director of Homeland Security Solutions at Esri. He joined Esri in 2010, bringing over twenty years of government experience in law enforcement and intelligence operations. Before joining Esri, Mr. Walter served as the Director of the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC), a DHS-designated intelligence fusion center, and the Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Analysis for the Boston Police Department. Following 9/11, he established a coordinated regional intelligence capability in the Boston metropolitan area, operationalizing local, state, and federal law enforcement and private sector resources for critical event management, including preventing and responding to terrorist threats, man-made hazards, and violent criminal activity. In his current role at Esri, Mr. Walter develops strategies that integrate technology, operations, and analytical tradecraft to support the security needs of national security agencies and Fortune 500 organizations worldwide. He holds an M.S. in Criminal Justice Management from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a B.S. in Criminal Justice from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.

Next Article

Integrating Spatial Fluency in the Workforce (III)

Read this article