County police and fireboats will patrol the Potomac River around National Harbor as part of efforts to make the waterway safe for visitors, harbor and county police officials said last week.
Prince George’s County police, along with 35 security patrols employed by the development, have already begun to patrol the 300-acre site. And nearly 150 security cameras will be monitored by private security from a harbor command center, said Kent Digby, National Harbor’s vice president of operations.
‘‘We’ve taken security to a whole new level,” Digby said. ‘‘We’ve put in a security system that we knew wouldn’t become outdated as the project got bigger.”
Digby said the cameras have been mounted on poles throughout the harbor and marina areas. Twenty-eight of the poles line the marina, and 120 are on the rest of the project.
Several towers, called ‘‘distress stations,” have been placed around the site, Digby said. People can contact security by pressing a two-way communication button on the tower.
‘‘Big Brother’s going to be watching you,” said Jon Peterson, a senior vice president and son of developer Milton V. Peterson.
Lt. Robert Gibson of the District 4 county police station said patrols will increase as more phases of the mixed-use project open.
County police spokeswoman Sharon Taylor said the police budgeted for the cost of the extra patrols around National Harbor.
‘‘It’s all within the police department budget,” she said, though she did not have exact budget numbers. ‘‘We’ve always been planning to incorporate it like any new development.”
County Executive Jack Johnson’s spokesman James Keary said the county would spend around $6 million a year servicing the Harbor in general, and that amount includes police and fire services.
The county fire department’s newly acquired high-speed boat will patrol the river and riverways, said fire department Major Curtis Eaby said. The $689,000, 36-foot-boat will be used for fire fighting and rescue operations. The police and fire boats will dock for free at one of the National Harbor marinas.
The project’s anchor, the Gaylord hotel and convention center, has 200 security cameras throughout the building. Gaylord has its own security staff headed by a former New Jersey state trooper, hotel spokeswoman Amie Gorrell said.
‘‘I know a lot of steps have been taken” to ensure the security of guests, said Gaylord General Manager Sheldon Suga, who declined to go into details about the hotel’s security network.
E-mail Ryan McDermott at rmcdermott@gazette.net.
