The topic may have been peace, but the one-day summit in Annapolis cost state and local agencies about $200,000 in security, Maryland emergency management officials say.
“We had some major world leaders coming to our state and our first commitment is to uphold public safety,” said Katie Lehan, spokeswoman for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, which began calculating the cost at the request of U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.
The summit jump-started negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders and attracted hundreds of diplomats, religious protesters and journalists to Annapolis.
Anne Arundel police tallied about $54,000 and used about 200 officers to prepare for a “high threat potential” with “special attention to any [people] attempting to gain notoriety or international attention,” said Sgt. Sara Schriver, county police spokeswoman.
The county police also provided a specialized K-9 detachment, air support, a contingent of sworn personnel to manage a mass arrest situation and an interagency communication capability, Schriver said.
Maryland State Police dished out $57,372, but for security reasons, they are not commenting on the number of officers placed on duty.
“It was a significant deployment, but we don?t want to talk about how many officers,” said Greg Shipley, state police spokesman.
“We worked as efficiently as possible to put as many people on regular time, but due to the length of the day … there was some overtime incurred. There were also vehicle expenses.”
Annapolis police could not be reached for comment, but the department spent about $28,000 for 35 officers and firefighters.
MEMA, which was created to coordinate the state?s response in any major emergency or disaster, is still waiting for reimbursements from the federal government, Lehan said.
