A new center aiming to make downtown Baltimore safer and cleaner is closer to opening.

The Downtown Partnership of Baltimore and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, have been working to open up a Strategic Operations Center (SOC) for the last two and a half years.

The goal is to have a hub for multiple agencies to work out of.

Thanks to the Maryland Board of Public Works approving $2 million toward the center, SOC's pilot phase is expected to start by the end of this year.

How will Baltimore's SOC work?

The SOC will utilize dozens of new cameras that will be posted around the downtown area. Some of the cameras and other technology that the SOC will use are already in the city.

"It is ordered, it's here," said Shelona Stokes, president of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.

Sto

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