RCMP to Join New Operational Integration Centre in Detroit

(Windsor, Ontario – Thursday, March 24, 2011) – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police will be participating in the new Operational Integration Center located at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Michigan. The Operational Integration Center (OIC) is intended to be a mechanism for leveraging the capabilities of the law enforcement community in an effort to detect, deter and prevent any security risks or threats along the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair area. The OIC is to improve unity of effort among all federal, state, and local stakeholders in border security and public safety.

The RCMP will be placing a full time intelligence analyst in the Detroit Operational Integration Centre. Reporting directly to the Great Lakes Marine Security Operations Centre (GL-MSOC), this analyst will gather and analyze information regarding the Detroit-Windsor maritime corridor that will assist GL-MSOC in preparing operational and strategic bulletins, intelligence reports, threat assessments and situation reports. The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway System plays a key role in the economic health of both Canada and the United States. The RCMP’s participation in the OIC will aid in providing front-line personnel and decision makers with on-going situational awareness of the Detroit-Windsor maritime corridor and ultimately contribute to a more comprehensive marine domain awareness picture of the entire area.

One of the goals of the OIC is to provide enhanced situational awareness for participating stakeholders. The OIC will bring about an increased unity of effort among participating agencies and help maximize resource utilization. The OIC will also draw support from field assets, intelligence resources, and a variety of technologies. The intelligence support resources at the OIC will provide intelligence to successfully integrate all three.

“The Detroit-Windsor maritime corridor with its surrounding rivers, channels, bridges, tunnels and other critical infrastructures plays an important role in sustaining economic health” said RCMP Staff Sergeant Steve Brown, non-commissioned officer in charge of the RCMP Unit at the Great Lakes Marine Security Operations Centre. “Maintaining vigilant situational awareness of this area is therefore important to both countries in terms of our collective economic and national security interests”.

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For further information, please contact:
S/Sgt. Steve Brown
RCMP “O” Division
Marine Security Operations Centre
Cell: (905)691-4046