Homeland Security & Public Safety
Public Safety
In the multi-jurisdictional metropolitan Washington region, ensuring safe communities for residents and visitors requires coordination across various agencies on a wide range of issues, including planning, response, resource sharing, and crime prevention. Throughout its history, COG has championed this coordination, such as its ongoing support of regional mutual aid agreements. These agreements allow police, fire, and other emergency resources to be shared across jurisdictional borders and have aided regional responses from the 1968 civil disturbances following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the 9/11 terrorist attacks to presidential inaugurations.
Additionally, COG brings together the region’s various public safety disciplines, including fire and emergency medical services (EMS), law enforcement, emergency management, health, public affairs, and information technology to address public safety issues at the regional scale, ranging from gangs to drunk driving to fire safety to emergency communication.
News & Multimedia
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News
March 14, 2023
At its March meeting, officials on the COG Board of Directors were joined by Meredith Weisel, Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Washington,...
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News
December 6, 2022
The number of alcohol and drug-related traffic fatalities decreased by 10 percent between 2020 and 2021 in the metropolitan Washington area, according to the...
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News
November 16, 2022
A briefing on the annual Report on Crime and Crime Control at the COG Board of Directors’ November meeting sparked a robust discussion on strategies for...
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News
June 14, 2022
On May 18, COG’s Department of Homeland Security and Public Safety hosted a webinar event in partnership with the Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC)...
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News
May 3, 2022
After more than two years, it feels like life in metropolitan Washington is nearly back to normal in many ways. But even as the pandemic recedes, it will have...