Q Just generally speaking, what is the purpose of a SIOC, and when are they usually set up?
A FBI could give you a better idea of the criteria they were using. But a SIOC is a command center. So you have the advantage of having everyone sit in one room, whether it's DOD, DHS, Park Police, whatever it is. Everyone's in one room together, so you can do real-time coordination.
So that's the advantage. The disadvantage is that it takes time for information to filter up to these command centers.
And so it was certainly helpful to have them all across the street at the FBI, in the headquarters, sitting in one room, working together. And so the AG thought it would be helpful, and I think he was right about that.
We did have—
Q Was there—
A —several other command centers that were already planned and that became operational. So there was a command center at the Washington Field Office of the FBI.
There was also a command center at the Metro P.D. headquarters, which they call the JOC, J-O-C, Joint Operations Center. That was mostly virtual, but there were some people physically there.
The Washington Field Office was like a mini version of the JOC. It had—I'm sorry—a mini version of the SIOC, S-I-O-C, and it had a lot of different components represented in one room there.
And then DHS had their own command center, which was called the National Operations Center, the N-O-C, and you'll see that in some of the communications as well.
Q How were all of these different command centers communicating with each
