The MPD also responded to the September 11 attacks of 2001 . Charles H. Ramsey , who was the Chief of Police at the time , later stated in an interview : We had just finished up a meeting when my chief of staff came in and told me I needed to go into his office and take a look at what was going on in New York . He had the '' Today Show '' on and he was looking at images of the first tower burning , the second tower had not yet been hit . I asked what happened and he said nobody seems to know . A small plane is the way it was described must have flown into the building . Everybody was still kind of not sure if it was an accident , on purpose or whatever and as we were standing there looking we actually saw the second plane strike the second tower , so we immediately knew that that was certainly no accident . The MPD activated its newly built Joint Operations Command Center ( JOCC ) . Although it had not officially opened yet , September 11 , 2001 , became its first day of operations . While some equipment had been installed , other devices , such as phones , had not and had to be installed on the fly as emergency personnel arrived to respond . Officials from various agencies and departments including the United States Park Police , United States Capitol Police , the FBI , Secret Service , and the FAA 's military district arrived to respond . Around that time , they were notified that The Pentagon had been hit as well . Though the Pentagon was located across the river in Arlington County , Virginia , MPD officers still responded to assist with the emergency response . Additionally , MPD officers working in conjunction with U.S. Park Police officers locked down all Federal buildings along the National Mall , including establishing a perimeter around the White House
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia