‘Hundreds’ of Security Improvements Made 2 Years After Jan. 6 but ’Attack' Could Happen Again: USCP Chief

U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger testifies during the Senate Rules and Administration Committee oversight hearing in Washington on Jan. 5, 2022. Tom Williams/Pool/Getty Images

U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) have made 100 “significant improvements” to security following the Jan. 6, 2021 breach, but there is still much to be done nearly two years after the incident, according to a top official.

Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in a press release on Jan. 2 that the breach of the Capitol was “one of the darkest days in our nation’s history” and forced security officials to question if such an incident could happen again.

“During the last two years, with the support of Congress, the United States Capitol Police has been working around the clock to implement more than 100 significant improvements,” Manger said. “Today we are clearly better off than we were before the January 6 attack and that is due to the hard work and dedication of more than 2,000 USCP employees.”

According to Manger, in the nearly two years since the breach, Capitol Police have bought in new leaders from premier law enforcement agencies who have expertise in national security special events, intelligence operations, and physical security.

They have also introduced detailed “Incident Action Plans” ahead of planned demonstrations or significant events, explaining the responsibilities of officials and law enforcement agencies, made “significant” equipment upgrades to improve the department’s readiness and protective capabilities, expanded specialized training, and increased its Civil Disturbance Unit capabilities.

A large group of protesters stand on the East steps of the Capitol Building after breaching its grounds in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. Jon Cherry/Getty Images

Training Deficiencies to Blame for Poor Response

Additionally, Congress passed legislation to ensure the USCP chief can unilaterally declare a state of emergency and call upon the National Guard when needed instead of having to wait for prior approval. USCP has also hired a new Intelligence Director, Ravi Satkalmi, who has more than a decade of national security, intelligence, and law enforcement experience.

Last year, the now-retired Capitol Police’s Inspector General, Michael Bolton, found numerous deficiencies in the agency’s preparedness and response to Jan. 6, including failing to share intelligence.

During testimony before the House Administration Committee in April 2021, Bolton said he believed that “training deficiencies put officers, our brave men and women, in a position not to succeed.”

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 114 Capitol Police officers were injured on Jan. 6.

Four people died from medical emergencies during the incident, and Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, was also shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer.

Other changes made in the two years since Jan. 6 include improvements in the way that USCP collects, analyzes, and shares intelligence with partner law enforcement agencies, according to Manger.

Finally, more Capitol police are being recruited and trained at a rate that Manger said will soon put the agency above its pre-COVID-19 pandemic and pre-Jan. 6 staffing levels.

“This success comes at a time when most law enforcement agencies are struggling to bring on additional officers” he noted.

The Jan. 6 Committee in the Canon House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Dec. 19, 2022. Al Drago/Getty Images

‘Still Work to Be Done’

Yet despite the “significant improvements,” the Capitol Police chief noted that there is “still work to be done,” adding that the “current threat climate, particularly against elected officials, will require continued and heightened vigilance.”

“With the polarized state of our nation, an attack like the one our Department endured on January 6, 2021, could be attempted again. Should the unthinkable happen, we will be ready,” Manger noted.

It comes as the former Capitol Police chief during the Jan. 6 breach, Steven Sund, warned in a new book that many of the issues that made the Capitol vulnerable on the day of the breach remain unfixed.

“Almost two years after the events of Jan. 6, the department is not in a better place or on a readier footing,” Sund writes in an excerpt from the book reported by The Washington Post “Hundreds of officers have left the department since Jan. 6 and many feel it is only going to get worse.”

In late December, the Jan. 6 House Select Committee withdrew its subpoena of former President Donald Trump as it prepared to dissolve following the release of its final report on the matter.

The panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), confirmed in a letter to Trump’s attorneys that the committee is no longer pursuing the former president’s testimony and documents regarding the incident, stating that Trump is “no longer obligated to comply or produce records in response to said subpoena.”

The subpoena was issued in October 2022 but Trump has maintained that he did nothing wrong and called the work of the panel a “political witch hunt.”