The Capitol Police internal watchdog on Thursday described in poignant detail how agents were woefully inadequately prepared for the January 6 uprising after leaders failed to pass on intelligence alerts and decided not to provide more effective weapons to combat the violent crowd.
In testimony to a house commission, Michael Bolton, Inspector General of the Capitol Police, highlighted two recent reports that listed numerous top leadership failures and called for a thorough review of the force’s training and operations.
Bolton told House Administration Committee lawmakers that the Capitol Police leadership chose not to use stronger weapons, such as through balls, out of concern that they would be misused and cause life-altering injuries or death in the assault on the Capitol.
Had those heavier weapons been used, Bolton said, it would have helped Capitol police take a “ better stance to ward off these attackers. ”
“It would be very difficult to say it would have absolutely turned the tide, but it would certainly have given them a better chance of doing what they had to do,” he added.
Bolton’s two reports focused on the intelligence-gathering operations of the Capitol Police and the Civil Disturbance Unit charged with responding to protests. The Office of the Inspector General is now in the process of providing “flash reports” every 30 days that are expected to address other factors in the January 6 response from the Capitol Police, including the use of manpower, training and K-9. units.
The reports showed that Capitol Police failed to ensure that an FBI bulletin warning of the threat of violence reached members of the leadership by January 6. According to the report, a Capitol Police task force officer assigned to the FBI Guardian Squad Task Force sent an email to the FBI. memo to an internal Capitol Police email distribution list “late in the evening” on Jan. 5, but neither then Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund nor now Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman saw it in time.
Bolton said Capitol Police should upgrade its intelligence department to a large-scale agency and ensure analysts are properly trained to manage threat intelligence to the Capitol and members of Congress.
“We need an intelligence agency. Currently it is considered an intelligence department. It has to be a comprehensive agency with full service, ”said Bolton on Thursday.
His report further recommends requiring all Capitol Police employees to obtain security clearances and receive secret briefings on emerging threats and tactics.
But Bolton confirmed in response to a question from Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) That the Capitol Police’s Office of the Inspector General made that recommendation before – also in 2019 – just for the strength to ignore it.
“A number of recommendations from the previous reports have been made but not implemented,” Steil said in frustration.
About 140 Capitol Police and DC police officers were injured in the uprising, while an officer, Brian Sicknick, died. A second Capitol Police officer, Howard Liebengood, died of suicide days later.
The Inspector General’s report confirms that the USCP leadership had useful information and was doing nothing with it. They could try to blame the FBI or the Department of Homeland Security, but the USCP leadership must take responsibility, ”Gus Papathanasiou, chairman of the Capitol Police union, said Thursday.
“Congress needs to hold these leaders to account,” he added.
Other reforms Bolton has been pursuing include making the Civil Disturbance Unit a more attractive assignment within the Capitol Police. His findings showed that the unit had a reputation among officers as a less desirable placement and functioned only on an “ad hoc” basis.
Bolton suggested providing additional risk compensation to officers serving within the unit as a financial incentive and making it a specially trained, full-time assignment.
“I firmly believe that when you create a specialized unit, a stand-alone, that gets the additional training, that is recommended that they are, as you would say, professionalized, that will naturally attract others to become a elite unit, ”Bolton said in response to a question from Rep. Jamie Raskin
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The Inspector General’s report found that Capitol Police failed to ensure that their weapons inventory was properly maintained, leaving the officers without the proper equipment to defend themselves against the violent mob of insurgents.
According to the report, some of the Capitol Police’s riot shields broke on impact because they were improperly stored in a trailer that was not climate-controlled. In addition, a platoon from the Civil Disturbance Unit could not access other riot shields stored in a bus because the door was locked. The platoon therefore had to respond to the crowd without riot shields.
“Lack of training means that officers, our brave men and women, cannot succeed,” Bolton testified.
Congress is expected to pass a spending package aimed at bolstering Capitol security, but the timing is still unclear. In addition to Bolton’s reports, lawmakers are also looking at recommendations from a team led by former Lieutenant General Russel Honoré.
Honoré’s report called for more police officers to be hired and a retractable fence placed around the Capitol that could be placed in emergency situations.
Lawmakers are expected to meet again with Bolton at a later date to ask more questions about his reports and how Congress should act on them.
Chairwoman of the House Administration Committee Zoe Lofgren
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