NCSU Campus Safety launches new Resiliency Operations Center to coordinate security

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- As more than 37,000 students return to the campus of NC State University in Raleigh to start a new year, the university has launched a new Resiliency Operations Center (ROC) to allow campus security to coordinate under one roof.

"We have reframed the idea of emergency operation centers to resiliency operation centers," explained Dr. Amy Orders, Senior Director of Emergency Preparedness.

"We want to be prepared for whatever happens, show that we as a group are collaborative, have a plan. We can come together in one space now and work very efficiently," Orders added.

The ROC is housed in the campus safety center, the same place as University Police. Campus safety officials said the biggest benefit of the new ROC is it can be used by emergency management, university police and other internal and external departments to coordinate in one space.

"This room could be filled with up to 20 different representative groups from transportation, university housing, or whatever the situation requires," Orders explained. "We bring those partners, bring them into one room, have a shared conversation, watch input, look for video, watch for information updates, talk to outside agencies such as additional police operations, emergency response officials or parents. And we coordinate whatever needs to be done to support that activity or group."

NCSU Police Chief Dan House said the ROC will be very effective for crowd management.

"We have this that can better manage those larger events that we have," House said. "We've always had some platform of the same kind, but the new technology we have is really going to be a game changer this year."

NCSU has about 3,000 security cameras covering over 2,000 acres of campus. All cameras and emergency phones can be viewed in the ROC for faster response to planned events and emergencies.

"So, if we had a traffic impact or a large event like Packapalooza, Final Four celebrations, graduations, or move-in we could monitor operations from this space, helping with logistics or traffic or crowds. We want to make sure that everyone has the right information to make the best decisions in a moment. And, so we celebrate both the planned events that are spectacular, large, and iconic, and the unplanned events like Mother Nature," Orders said.

"It's all about communication and collaboration," House said.

NCSU's ROC began operations the week of August 12 as thousands of students moved back onto campus.