As thousands of visitors descended on metropolitan Washington for Inauguration weekend, area homeland security and public safety personnel stood ready to respond to any incidents that might threaten the safety of attendees or residents. Much planning, coordination, and training among agencies went into preparing for the high-profile weekend festivities—such as the January 12 inauguration briefing held by COG and the Greater Washington Board of Trade for area leaders. When a group of inauguration protesters became violent, various law enforcement agencies were able to easily share critical information about the situation with one another via the Regional Incident Communication and Coordination System (RICCS), a 24/7 system owned and maintained by COG that delivers messages to more than 1,500 officials.

MORE: Lessons on emergency preparedness from the presidential inauguration (Government Computer News)