The City's Critical Link To All First Responders

About 28 screens should be up in district stations and other police buildings by the end of the year. Chicago and other cities are already using them.

The screens, which likely will not be on display for the public to see, will cost about $300,000 for the equipment, installation and programming.

Currently, the department depends on police radios and a pager system for alerts. "I want people to know what's going on," Blizzard said of police officers and commanders, who can help disseminate information to the public.

He said it is important to have a strong communications systems in place because "the experts say we're going to be dealing with [terrorist threats] for a long time."

Blizzard's supervisor, Assistant Chief Patrick Burke, said trust and accessibility are key in the intelligence sharing world.

"You need somebody when things are happening that you can trust," Burke said. "I know I can go to Mel, and he's going to have answers for me."

Blizzard also is in charge of the city's 92 surveillance cameras and the ShotSpotter gunshot location technology, a network of sound sensors atop buildings that immediately alert police of the sound of gunfire.

Blizzard, who lives on a farm in Carroll County, has been in law enforcement for 31 years.

He gained notoriety in March 2000 as head of Baltimore County's hostage negotiation team when Joseph Palczynski went on a rampage, killing four people and taking a family of three hostage for four days. It ended when two hostages escaped, a third was rescued, and Palczynski was shot to death by Baltimore County police.

Blizzard said that hostage negotiation was rewarding, because he could save people's lives, but that he became even more committed to helping people after the death of his son, Nathan, a decade ago in a car crash. Had he lived, his son would have been 30 this year.

"It changed me forever," Blizzard said. "I think about Nathan every day."

He said Nathan was committed to helping people through his passion for farming, and his tribute to his son is to try to make the world a better place.

"I became more hellbent on doing what I could to save other people," Blizzard said.