New Center Keeps County Plugged in About Disasters

All five hospitals in the county are linked to the center so that emergency officials can track important developments in emergency rooms. If there is a spike in flu cases, that information would be transmitted quickly to the commanders. If there were a rash of symptoms suggesting a biological terrorist attack, that also would be quickly known in the operations center.

All of this, of course, is theoretical. The emergency operations center is only "activated," in the parlance of county officials, when a likely catastrophe is imminent (such as hurricanes and other storms that can be forecast) or after it has struck (such as the sniper attacks in 2002). At other times, it is essentially vacant, except during practice sessions.

The 145 traffic cameras in the traffic management center run 24 hours a day. They monitor a range of public spaces in the county. A single camera atop the Executive Office Building in Rockville, for example, can survey an area of many square miles. Using a joystick in the traffic management center, an operator can swivel the camera 360 degrees and focus in on any area. It is possible to almost read license plates on cars parked at the Rockville Metro station, about a quarter-mile away.

Such cameras have become commonplace in Washington and elsewhere since Sept. 11 and have raised concerns among civil liberties groups and others about police surveillance.

Aoyagi said the county's traffic cameras are expressly forbidden to be used in police investigations.

"We don't want to be a Big Brother," Aoyagi said while giving a tour of the emergency operations center. "This was never intended to be a law enforcement surveillance camera, and we don't save any of the video."

Once activated, the center is designed to be home to a host of county agencies, ranging from the health department to the police department. The new facility has a bunk room, kitchen and showers so that officials can stay overnight. Electricity is backed up by several diesel-powered generators.

The difference between the new center and the old one in Rockville "is night and day," said County Council member Michael Knapp (D-Upcounty), who chairs the council's homeland security committee. In the old center, "we were running the system on computers that were 12 years old."

The new center and a recent round of purchases for public safety technology -- including new radios for police officers and firefighters and computer-aided call-taking in the 911 call center -- cost $150 million. It is the largest single capital outlay the county has ever made, officials said.

The operations center alone cost $8.9 million, according to documents from the county Office of Management and Budget. Of that amount, $4.6 million came from federal grants. The county will also pay $1.9 million to install computers and other technology in the old Rockville center, which will be used as a backup in the event the new facility cannot be used, officials said.

"It's an enormous investment, but one that there was really no disagreement about on the council," said County Council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg), who chairs the council's public safety committee. "The combination of all this new technology represents a quantum leap forward in our county's ability to provide public safety to our residents."