National Capital Region Selects Homeland Security Projects to Fund

Today, officials said they will use the region’s federal homeland security funds for medical and law enforcement projects to detect and respond to terror attacks.

There are two focused goals for this year’s funding. The first is to increase the ability of health and medical systems to treat large numbers of critically injured people following an attack, such as a dirty bomb. The second is to invest in technology to help police prevent homemade or radioactive bomb attacks.

Technology investments will include advanced monitoring, detection and information sharing systems, such as radiation detection, automated license plate recognition, video camera data integration, traffic monitoring, biometric identification of suspects in the field and regional law enforcement record sharing. These systems will help police to find a bomb or bomber before anattack.

The announcement came from local and state officials in the National Capital Region (NCR), representing the District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine.

In July, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security awarded the NCR $59.8 million, and some of the projects to be funded include:

· Hospital Surge Capacity and Tracking ($3.9 million): The region will buyadditional hospital beds, equipment and medicines to treat 300 critically injured patients for three days without outside help. New software will allow emergency rooms to track the real-time location of ambulances from every hospital in the region. ERs also will be able to monitor the treatment capacities at every hospital.

· Metropolitan Medical Response System ($4.4 million): The MMRS system will be expanded into the District of Columbia and Maryland. This program brings together hospitals, doctors, firefighters and others to plan and train to treat mass casualties.

· Radiation Detectors ($3.9 million): Police officers across the region will beoutfitted with radiation detectors, and the devices will be networked to a central monitoring station. They will help police to detect a “dirty” or nuclear bomb as far from its target as possible. Stationary detectors also will be positioned at key highways across the region.

· License Plate Readers ($4.4 million): The cameras allow police to comparelicense plates against local, state and federal databases. These tag readers will be placed at airports, highways and in police cruisers. The devices will help police quickly identify vehicles and track their movement across the region.

· Bomb Squad Upgrades ($5.6 million): Local bomb squads will receiveadditional training and equipment. For example, squads will get advanced training in disarming improvised explosive devices. Private-sector security officials also will receive basic training.

The National Capital Region — which is comprised of 11 local jurisdictions, two states and the District of Columbia — prepares for disasters collaboratively. This unique regional structure, in the area that is home to the nation’s capital with the associated elevated risks, requires an equally complex system to determine how to best and most equitably allocate scarce resources such as UASI funds.

The NCR’s elected officials, emergency management, law enforcement, fire and public health personnel, along with the nonprofit and private sectors, work together across the region’s jurisdictional boundaries to identify and prioritize projects to improve the region’s emergency preparedness and response capabilities.

Past UASI grants have been used to prepare, train, and equip law enforcement, fire, emergency medical services, transportation, public health and other first responders, improving their capabilities to prevent and respond to a wide range of potential hazards in the NCR.

The funding has also been used to assist public safety officials to communicate across jurisdictional boundaries by enhancing interoperable communications; offer emergency alerts and notifications to the public; educate the public on disaster preparedness; assist special needs populations to prepare for major emergencies; increase medical readiness; and equip first responders to respond to all types of hazardous situations.

The National Capital Region invests in disaster preparations in an efficient, regionally coordinated manner, and focuses the region’s homeland security spending on the greatest risks and needs.