WASHINGTON (AP) – The US Capitol Police are struggling.
One officer was killed and another injured when a driver hit a barricade Friday afternoon. The attack comes after officers were caught off guard and injured when a violent mob of Trump supporters raided the Capitol on Jan. 6, breaking insufficient barriers and making their way into the steps of lawmakers. One officer died and another committed suicide.
Numerous officers are considering early retirement, top leaders have resigned, and defendants are increasingly criticized. Security concerns about the events of the past four months may change not only the way the department operates, but also whether the historic public site can remain open.
The head of the Capitol Police union said agents are “reeling” after the death on Friday of Officer Billy Evans, who was on the police force for 18 years.He was beaten at an entrance to the Capitol by a man who, according to investigators, was suffering from delusions and suicidal thoughts.
Evans’ death comes after Officer Brian Sicknick, who was one of hundreds of officers who tried to fight rioters without the necessary equipment or planning, died after the January 6 riot. Agent Howard Liebengood died of suicide shortly afterwards.
Hundreds of officers are considering retiring or looking for jobs elsewhere, union chairman Gus Papathanasiou said in a statement. “They continue to work even as we rapidly approach a morale and troop crisis,” he said, noting that agents are dealing with “massive amounts of forced overtime.”
Dozens of officers were injured on Jan. 6 and others were held out of work during an internal investigation into the department’s response, including the officer who shot a 35-year-old woman while she and others gathered at a barricaded doorway. That has further exhausted a power that has more than 200 vacant positions, about 10% of its authorized power level.
In the months since the uprising, many officers have routinely worked 12-hour days or more to protect the building during Biden’s inauguration and impeachment proceedings against Trump on Jan. 20.
“This rips the crust off and continues to create a level of uncertainty and concern about the workplace and what is happening there,” said Representative Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat who chairs a subcommittee that oversees funding for the Capitol Police. “And I think this is very personal to so many of us who have come to love and respect the Capitol Police even more than we already had, because of what they did on January 6th, and then immediately turn around to make sure that the inauguration was safe. “
Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman received a vote of no confidence from the union in February, reflecting widespread distrust among the constituency. Pittman was assistant intelligence chief during the riot and has admitted that she had not seen an FBI assessment the day before the “war” warning in the Capitol.
Steven Sund, who resigned as chief of duty in January under supervision of police adequacy for the riot, told The Associated Press that agents he spoke to were “tense”.
The grief and crises that have engulfed the Capitol Police are also part of wider social forces that have put the country to the test, Sund said.
“There is the impact of the pandemic on the American psyche,” said Sund. “There are a lot of things on social media and a lot is being done regarding the actions of law enforcement officials. Law enforcement officials have been attacked in cities across the country. So there are just a lot of things that make 2020, 2021 a little bit unique. “
The Capitol Police is not a typical law enforcement agency. The approximately 2,000 officers are solely responsible for protecting Congress – its members, visitors, and facilities cover approximately 16 acres.
The department dates back to the early 1800s, after President John Quincy Adams asked Adams to create a police force to help protect the building after incidents there. Now they have an operating budget of $ 460 million.
The driver in Friday’s incident, 25-year-old Noah Green, was shot with a knife by officers shortly after coming out of the vehicle, authorities said. Green later died in a hospital. There is no known connection between the uprising and Green, who described himself in online reports as being under government control and being watched.
New concrete barriers have been placed around the checkpoint where Evans and a colleague kept watch north of the Capitol. But the attack underscores that the Capitol will always be a target, said retired Lieutenant General Russel Honoré, who chaired a task force. who made several safety recommendations after the uprising.
“It is the most important building in America because it is the seat of our democracy,” Honoré told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “If that building and the people in it don’t function, we no longer have a democracy. And whatever price we have to pay to protect it, we have to do it. “
The task force called for renewed pressure to fill the 233 positions in the armed forces and for Congress to fund 350 new jobs and new fencing systems and other infrastructure. The task force also wants Congress to give the Capitol Police Chief of Police new authority to seek support from the National Guard in a crisis. Sund has alleged that leaders of the three-person Capitol Police Board delayed his calls for Guard assistance on Jan. 6, which former council members have denied.
Papathanasiou, the union chairman, said he supported Honoré’s recommendations and met him and his team on Thursday, the day before Evans’s death.
“As I explained to him, these improvements are critical, but our number one priority is to keep our existing officers,” said Papathanasiou. “There are immediate steps Congress can take to address this.”
Rep. Jennifer Wexton, a Virginia Democrat, has been in touch with Liebengood’s family since his death. She called for a program to encourage peer-to-peer discussions between agents about the trauma they had suffered, separate from mental health professionals who were called to meet with agents.
“I just want to make sure we take care of the Capitol Police, because that’s the only constant in all of this,” she said. “Whatever we do, the first assignment is not a physical structure, it is to take care of the officers.”
Trader reported from Houston. Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Colleen Long and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.