An early iteration of multidisciplinary and interjurisdictional coordination in the National Capital Region (NCR) was the Metropolitan Medical Strike Team (MMST). In 1995, the MMST program was funded by Congress to support the Department of Justice’s newly developed domestic preparedness initiative in major metropolitan areas across the United States. Within the NCR, the MMST provided coordination with first responders agencies in Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland to prepare for incidents involving hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction.

Similar to the MMST program, the federal government created the Metropolitan Medical Response Systems (MMRS) in the aftermath of several high-profile terrorist incidents in the 1990s. The concept provided funding and planning framework to advance the all-hazards approach to large-scale incidents, with a particular emphasis on mass casualty response. Both Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland created local instances of MMRS in 2005. Over several years, in both counties, numerous multidisciplinary plans were developed to guide a cohesive response to large-scale terrorist and mass casualty incidents. Nonetheless, most of these plans were jurisdiction-specific, and did not involve all relevant partners.

With the benefits of these early programs, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) grant program to further assist metropolitan areas to confront evolving threats. This program assists high-threat, high-density urban areas in efforts to build and sustain the capabilities necessary to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism. Each year, a subset of the NCR’s UASI funds are allocated to the Maryland-National Capital Region Emergency Response System (MDERS) to build and enhance response capabilities in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties.

MDERS serves as a conduit to promote interjurisdictional and interdisciplinary coordination between emergency management; fire, rescue and emergency medical services; law enforcement; public health; and healthcare agencies within Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties. Through this collaboration and the administration of awarded UASI funds, MDERS leads the building and implementation of critical response capabilities that protect over two million residents within the Maryland-National Capital Region (MD-NCR).

All MDERS’s work is guided by a Strategic Plan that is created in consultation with a Steering Committee comprised of county agency leadership from the five MDERS supported stakeholder disciplines. In alignment with the enumerated goals, MDERS and the Steering Committee representatives identify response capabilities within the region that require additional development, expansion, or in some cases, creation. MDERS staff work closely with relevant stakeholder agencies to create Capability Development Plans (CDPs), which identifies the approach to planning, organizing, equipping, training, exercising, and evaluating all capabilities. Upon completion of the CDPs, MDERS oversees the long-term implementation of the capability until ownership is transferred to the stakeholder agency.

Currently, the MDERS team is currently comprised of a director, a deputy director of the operational support directorate, a deputy director of the finance and administration directorate, a senior emergency response specialist, three emergency response specialists, a project manager, a financial manager, and an administrative specialist.