Watchdog lays bare Capitol Police’s riot security failures
WASHINGTON >> A blistering internal report by the U.S. Capitol Police describes the multitude of missteps that left the force unprepared for the Jan. 6 insurrection:
• Riot shields that shattered upon impact.
•Expired weapons that couldn’t be used.
• Inadequate training,
•The intelligence division that had few set standards.
The watchdog report released internally last month and obtained by The Associated Press before a congressional hearing Thursday, adds to what is already known about broader security and intelligence failures that Congress has been investigating since hundreds of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters laid siege to the Capitol.
In its extensive timeline of that day, the report describes the movements of the Capitol Police as officers scrambled to evacuate lawmakers, and it details previously unknown conversations between officials as they disagreed on whether National Guard forces were
necessary to back up the understaffed force. It quotes an Army official as telling thenCapitol Police Chief Steven Sund that “we don’t like the optics of the National Guard standing in a line at the Capitol” after the insurrectionists had already broken in.
Inspector General Michael A. Bolton found that the department’s deficiencies were and remain widespread:
• Equipment was old and stored badly.
•Leaders had failed to act on previous recommendations
to improve intelligence.
• There was a broad lack of current policies or procedures for the Civil Disturbance Unit, the division that existed to ensure that legislative functions of Congress were not disrupted by civil unrest or protest activity.
That was exactly what happened on Jan. 6, as Trump’s supporters sought to overturn the election in his favor as Congress counted the Electoral College votes.
The report came as the
Capitol Police force has plunging morale and has edged closer to crisis, as many officers have been working extra shifts and forced overtime to protect the Capitol after the insurrection. Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman received a vote of no-confidence from the union in February, reflecting widespread distrust among the rank and file.
The entire force is also grieving the deaths of three of their own:
• Officer Brian Sicknick, who collapsed and died after engaging with protesters on Jan. 6.
• Officer William “Billy” Evans, who was killed April 2 when he was hit by a car that rammed into a barricade outside the Senate. Evans laid in honor in the Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday.
• A third officer, Howard Liebengood, died by suicide in the days after the insurrection.
The Capitol Police have so far refused to publicly release the report, marked throughout as “law enforcement sensitive,” despite congressional pressure to do so. House Administration Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., issued a statement in March that she had been briefed on the report, along with another internal document, and that it contained “detailed and disturbing findings and important recommendations.”
Bolton was expected to testify before the committee Thursday.
The report focuses heavily on failure of equipment and training Jan. 6, as Capitol Police were quickly overwhelmed by about 800 of Trump’s supporters who pushed past them, beat them and broke windows and doors to get into the building. It also looks at missed intelligence as the insurrectionists planned the attack openly online and as various agencies sent warnings that were disseminated incorrectly.
Bolton found that in many cases, department equipment had expired but was not replaced, and some of it was more than 20 years old. Riot shields that shattered upon impact as the officers fended off the violent mob had been improperly stored, Bolton found. Some weapons that could have fired tear gas were so old that officers didn’t feel comfortable using them. Other weapons that could have done more to disperse the crowd were never staged ahead of the rally, and those who were ordered to get backup supplies to the officers on the front lines could not make it through the aggressive crowd.
In other cases, weapons weren’t used because of “orders from leadership,” the report says. Those weapons, called “less lethal” because they are designed to disperse, not kill, could have allowed the police to better push back the rioters as they moved toward the building, according to the report.