US Capitol Police chief details security upgrades
Manger tells Senate panel of progress in wake of deadly riot
WASHINGTON — With officers still reeling from the mob violence that overran Congress a year ago, the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police told lawmakers Wednesday that his department was taking steps to address deficiencies laid bare by the attack and would implement more than 100 recommendations for improvement.
The chief, J. Thomas Manger, who took over the force in July, told the Senate Rules Committee that the Capitol Police were already addressing 90 of the agency inspector general’s 103 recommendations. They include streamlining intelligence operations and purchasing needed equipment.
“We fully understand the need to restore confidence in our ability to fulfill our mission each day, no matter the circumstances,” Manger said in written testimony to the committee, which last month heard critiques of the agency from the inspector general, Michael Bolton. “The men and women of the U.S. Capitol Police proved their mettle on Jan. 6.”
Bolton told the committee that only about 30 of his recommendations had been implemented. Manger said another 60 were in progress, and that he had assigned an inspector to ensure that all of them are ultimately put in place.
The Capitol Police remain under strain a year after being overrun by a mob of Donald Trump supporters who stormed the building as Congress met to count electoral votes to formalize Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. About 150 officers from the Capitol Police, Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department and other local agencies were injured in the violence, including more than 80 from the Capitol Police alone.
Afterward, numerous failures by the agency were made clear, even as lingering grief, trauma and fear suffused its ranks. The failures included findings that managers had not equipped the force with enough riot gear or produced an adequate plan for a potential riot, and had ignored or overlooked intelligence reports warning of attacks on lawmakers.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, spoke at the hearing and praised the changes to the force. The top three officials in charge of security at the Capitol a year ago have all been replaced, and Congress has approved more than $70 million for upgrades to the police force.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., chair of the Rules Committee, said she believed it was important for rank-and-file officers to hear that the agency was undertaking reforms.
“It’s important for the officers who were protecting us on the front line — cuts on their faces, losing their friends and colleagues to suicide — to hear about the progress that’s been made as well and some of the improvements in morale,” Klobuchar said.
Manger said the agency encountered more than 9,000 threats last year, an increase from previous years, requiring a heightened workload.
Manger said the force had made key new hires and planned to ramp up recruitment efforts, including setting a goal of hiring 280 new officers each year for the next three years, as well as quickly bringing in other security workers under contract to free up sworn officers.
He also outlined other improvements, including making enhancements to the way the department gathers and shares intelligence and beefing up the Civil Disturbance Unit.
He added that the force had prepared a 25-page security plan for Thursday’s anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack.
A Department of Homeland Security intelligence analysis from Dec. 30 concluded that “threat actors will try to exploit the upcoming anniversary of the 6 January 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol to promote or possibly commit violence, but we currently lack reporting on a specific or credible threat.”
The report said the “mostly likely threat of violence surrounding the 6 January anniversary stems from lone offenders seeking to target perceived ideological opponents, political symbols or law enforcement.”
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the top Republican on the committee, highlighted legislation Congress passed last year to make it possible for the Capitol Police chief to unilaterally request the assistance of the National Guard. He said that and similar reforms were needed to better protect the police officers who were overrun during the Capitol attack.
“These officers were the true heroes of Jan. 6,” Blunt said.
Manger’s testimony came a day after three police officers injured in the attack filed two separate federal lawsuits seeking to hold Trump accountable for the violence.