BALTIMORE (AP) - When three Baltimore County police officers saw someone aiming a camera from a sport utility vehicle on the Bay Bridge and decided the videotaping looked suspicious, Maryland's intelligence center was notified within minutes.

The state's counterterrorism center has local, state and federal authorities sitting next to each other 24 hours a day at an FBI building in Calverton in Prince George's County. That's why police were able to arrest Ismael Selim Elbarasse, a man wanted for questioning in Chicago about the finances of the Hamas extremist group, so quickly, state officials said.

"It's a true partnership," said Jim Ports, assistant secretary of the state Department of Transportation and a member of Gov. Robert Ehrlich's homeland security team, which develops state policies on the issue. "And that's what's making it work."

Marylanders may know the center best from the enormous electronic signs above state highways that advertise its hotline - 1-800-492-TIPS - and ask people to report suspicious activity. Those calls are directed to the unit, officially called the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center.

The Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council of Maryland, a group chaired by Assistant U.S. Attorney Harvey Eisenberg, opened the center in November.

Federal homeland security officials, members of state departments and local police officers all have a role in the center's operation. Federal, state and local departments assign officers to take calls from law enforcement agencies and members of the public from around the state.

"By having shoulder-to-shoulder workers with us, we're able to turn to our counterpart state or local agency and share our information," said Barry Maddox, a spokesman for the FBI's Baltimore field office.

The center's staff do not conduct separate investigations, but share information and analysis, according to the center's charter. The center developed an encrypted Web site to exchange data among members and to receive and share information with agencies outside Maryland.

Authorities credit the center's information-sharing policies and methods with getting information rapidly Friday to officers from the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, who learned within minutes Friday that a material witness warrant had been issued earlier the same day for Elbarasse in Chicago.