Inauguration festivities are taking place throughout D.C. on Monday, and dozens of eyes are watching from the city’s Joint Operations Command Center.
A giant wall of screens shows surveillance camera views of high-traffic areas around the District, and most, though not all, of the focus is on the events surrounding the inauguration. The wall of screens also includes maps, various TV networks and running lists of incidents that every agency around the city might need to respond to.
“We’re looking at primarily the First Amendment activities that are moving about the city, the large number of folks coming in and at the Metro stations, walking around the streets,” said Cmdr. Matthew Fitzgerald, who is overseeing it all.
Strapped to his belt are two cellphones that are constantly ringing and even more police radios also going off. When he spoke with WTOP late in the morning, he said everything was going according to plan.
“There’s a lot of partners in there with us right now. Federal, local partners, other agencies,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re doing a tremendous amount of communication. Our operations center is in communication with other operations centers across the area.”
Planning for the event began more than a year ago, with more than 20 federal, state and city agencies involved. Many are security focused, but there are also D.C. Department of Transportation and Department of Public Works officials there for instance.
At one point they were trying to coordinate a deicing operation on a Downtown street where conditions were slippery and people were gathering to march.
It’s an around-the-clock operation that won’t end until everything surrounding the events has concluded.
“We have planned events all day and into the night,” he said. “We’re tracking those events closely. We’re also prepared for other unexpected events that may arise.”
And that could be in other parts of the District, many blocks or even miles away from inaugural festivities. There’s still an entire city to monitor, beyond what’s happening in the Downtown core.
“The patrol districts are well staffed to respond to crime and calls for service and 911 calls in those areas,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re also completely staffed with the real time crime center, so we’re responding to those calls as we would any other day of the week.”
He added, “Our responses are coordinated, our communication is coordinated, and the responses that we have within the District will not be interrupted because of the events that are happening Downtown today.”
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