The violent attack on the United States Capitol, which left five dead and nearly paralyzed the federal government, encouraged Congressional leaders to demand a “robust” investigation into the “stunning” failure of national security.
“They could have blown up the place. They could have killed us all, ”Senator Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) told reporters this week, while demanding answers.
However, Congressional leaders do not have to go too far for accountability. Congress itself is a client and superintendent of the US Capitol Police – an secret agency whose procedures and actions have been kept secret for decades by lawmakers themselves.
“The Capitol Police is exceptionally opaque, even among federal officials,” said Jonathan M. Smith, executive director of the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.
A force of more than 2,000 sworn officers, the Capitol Police are used to Washington’s large demonstrations and crowds, but it seemed unprepared for an insurrection that was openly discussed on social media in the days leading up to Wednesday’s riot. The lackluster response also rekindled the discussion of racial prejudice in policing – a subject the force has dealt with internally for years.
A senior law enforcement official – not authorized to speak publicly to the press – said the agency’s mistakes were “a failure of planning, not intelligence.”
A representative from the Capitol Police union blamed those at the top, including police chief Steve Sund, saying that poor communication was part of a larger pattern of mismanagement that endangered officers.
The pandemic may also have influenced, but it is not known how many police officers were suffering from COVID-19 or quarantined at the time.
Little is known about how the Capitol Police operate, despite their omnipresent presence on Capitol Hill. Congress exempted the agency from the Freedom of Information Act, preventing the public from requesting registration – unlike other agencies, such as the FBI. The force has its own inspector general, but the office does not release its investigations or reports.
Inspector General Michael Bolton told Congress in 2019 that “protecting and protecting the Capitol complex from terrorists and weapons of mass destruction, while protecting Congress and its staff and welcoming the public continues to be a great challenge “.
His office made a series of recommendations to the Capitol Police, including strengthening counter-surveillance and securing entry points. Bolton and his team did not respond to requests for comment.
In an email, Anna Hansen of the House Committee on Appropriations – one of four Congressional panels charged with overseeing the Capitol Police – noted that a move taken before Wednesday’s events will take effect later this year and requires that Bolton’s office looking at the past three years of its work is to see which reports “could” be made publicly available without compromising security. However, the new policy does not actually make these reports public.
Deputy Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), who chairs the House Administration Committee, declined to comment on the supervisory role of her Capitol Police committee, including transparency measures long proposed by open government advocates .
Capitol Police provided little information about what happened on Wednesday, except for a brief statement from Chief Sund, who will resign on January 16.
Eva Malecki, director of communications for the Capitol Police, did not respond to questions or provided a comment to The Times about the agency.
The team also declined a request for reports from 14 prison officials made on Wednesday.
Videos widely shared on social media showed hundreds of identifiable people breaking into and damaging House and Senate offices while some policemen retreated or stood still, raising disparate policing concerns for the predominantly white crowd compared to the aggressive strategies deployed by the police during the Black Lives Matter protests about The Summer.
“You must ask yourself to what extent there was some sympathy among some of the policemen who allowed this to happen,” said Smith, looking at the Capitol Police’s own strained race relations within its ranks and with DC communities.
Former officer Theortis “Butch” Jones, who served from 1973 to 2009 on the agency’s contingent on Capitol Hill, said complaints of racial discrimination within the ranks were continually ignored and resulted in retaliation against black officers like him.
“I would tell people of color not to drive to the Capitol,” Jones said, referring to the Capitol Police traffic stops that he felt were disproportionately leveled to black district residents.
Jones was among those who formed the US Capitol Black Police Association, which led a class action against agency in 2012 for widespread discrimination. He participated in a historic lawsuit outlining similar complaints by Black Capitol police in 2001.
A review of prison data by Demand progress – a nonprofit organization that pressured the Capitol Police for greater transparency – found that a large proportion of prisons typically take place outside of Congress hours and outside of Capitol Hill. The force has an agreement with the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department that extends its jurisdiction beyond the Capitol and its grounds and to neighboring neighborhoods.
“They are wasting time taking down people for smoking marijuana or homeless people at Union Station,” said Demand Progress director Daniel Schuman. It is not clear why the agency is conducting low-level prisons that do not appear to have a direct connection to its main function, he said.
With a budget of $ 515 million, the Capitol Police would easily outperform most municipal police departments. In comparison, the Washington Metropolitan Police Department was funded by $ 559 million with almost twice as many police officers.
While national policing conversations have encouraged more transparent measures, such as body cameras, said Schuman, the Capitol Police have resisted basic practices like reporting prison information – something the agency has begun to do in a limited format only in December 2018.
Schuman also noted that attempts to find out what went wrong on Wednesday are difficult because the agency’s standard operating procedures are also kept secret.
“This is an island system where it is about protecting members,” said Schuman. “A giant scandal, such as invading the Capitol, is needed before members begin to rethink this relationship.”
The few glimpses the public has of the inner workings of the force is when the agency makes a public mistake. Then police chief Kim Dine was brought to testify for Congress in 2015 after a series of lapses involving former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and firearms that were left in a Capitol bathroom by officers.
Outside of these hearings, Congress has more or less ignored repeated calls to put the Capitol Police in line with other law enforcement agencies when it comes to basic transparency.
“It is Congress’ responsibility to ensure that they are overseeing the Capitol Police,” said Melissa Wasser, of the Government Oversight Project. “It has not become a priority.”
The Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.