How Capitol Police have changed since the Jan. 6 riots
Sarah Westwood
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In the two years since rioters sacked the U.S. Capitol, the department charged with securing the building and protecting the lawmakers inside it has significantly shifted its approach.
Capitol Police officers have new shields, helmets, and batons. They’ve received updated training and new surveillance technology to keep tabs on the congressional campus.
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The U.S. Capitol Police came under intense scrutiny in the aftermath of the attack due to how easily rioters were able to breach the building. The force also faced criticism for a perceived lack of transparency after the event, with some lawmakers accusing it of withholding information about how it failed so spectacularly to protect the Capitol.
Since then, multiple reviews — both internal and external, including an extensive look from the now-disbanded Jan. 6 committee — have found areas where the force fell short on the day of the riot.
A Republican-led review released late last year to counterbalance the Jan. 6 report found that a key division within the Capitol Police agency changed its protocol just one month before the attack, stopping the division from tracking social media threats.
Now, the Capitol Police has a robust social media monitoring effort — including, at one point, a controversial practice of checking the social media histories of citizens meeting with members of Congress.
Lawmakers in both parties have questioned the significant delay in the deployment of National Guard troops on the day of the riots. As protesters broke from a march and overran the Capitol Police, the National Guard stood by for hours.
Congress has since passed legislation granting the Capitol Police the unilateral authority to call the National Guard for backup in the event of a similar attack.
Employing more than 2,000 officers already, the department has also amplified its reach in the past two years by formalizing partnerships with dozens of other law enforcement agencies in the Washington, D.C., area.
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Some of the security measures put in place after Jan. 6 are already gone, however.
After Republicans won a House majority in November, they removed the metal detectors outside the House chamber, as some Republicans had seen them as symbolic of what they saw as Democrats’ overreaction to the riots.