Montgomery County unveils new $2M joint operations center to streamline emergency response

Welcome back. Montgomery County today showing off a brand new Public Safety Joint Operations Center, bringing together crime fighters and emergency first responders into one place. Bob Barnard in Gaithersburg tonight. The new high-tech ops center is here inside Montgomery County Public Safety Headquarters in Gaithersburg. In Gaithersburg. We got a first look at the room this afternoon. 13,000 square feet loaded with the latest technology. Even the police department's drone pilots are based here. It's a joint operations center bringing together Montgomery County Police, fire and EMS, plus emergency management and homeland security teams in one place. Officials say the goal is to improve situational awareness, interagency coordination, and emergency responses to all kinds of incidents. High-risk, time-sensitive emergencies, such as missing persons cases, shelter-in-place events, special operations, and weather-related emergencies, have consistently demonstrated the value of rapid information sharing, unified decision-making, and synchronized operations. Today was the official ribbon-cutting ceremony, but... Parts of the Joint Operations Center have been up and running since March. This is happening at a time when automated license plate recognition or flock camera programs are under fire all across the region. With all the extra eyes on Montgomery County now, I asked the county's interim police chief, Darren Frank, about this. One of the most important things is model policy, and Montgomery County's been doing that for a long time. We have policy that talks about ALPR, talks about drone as first responder, and we work with our communities to develop that. So what I would say is look at our policies and understand that those are developed very thoughtfully, and it balances public safety with privacy. Montgomery County has budgeted more than $2 million to open this new ops center. It'll be running 24/7, but is separate from the county's Emergency Communications, or 911, center.