Less than 30% of changes to U.S. Capitol Police that were recommended in the aftermath of Jan. 6 have been implemented, department Inspector General Michael Bolton told a Senate committee Tuesday.
“The Department still lacks the overall training infrastructure to meet the needs of the Department, the level of Intelligence gathering and expertise needed, and an overall cultural change needed to move the department into a protective agency as opposed to a traditional Police Department,” Bolton said, specifying only 30 out of 104 recommendations he made to the department have been implemented.
Bolton also said, “out of 200 security enhancements the department provided to the inspector general, only 61 of those items have supporting documentation to support that those enhancements have occurred,” NBC News reported.
He also said, although he met with the new Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger in August, they have not done so again since due to Manger’s busy schedule.
Bolton’s testimony to the Senate Rules and Administration Committee comes as the department has had a higher-than-usual number of officers leave and is requesting contract security officers from the Capitol Police Board to alleviate an overworked force.
“We have proposed this to the Capitol Police Board as a temporary option to allow our officers to spend more time with their loved ones and to provide them time for additional training,” a Capitol Police spokesperson told CNN.
Bolton said some 200 officers have retired or left the department this year, more than double the usual 90 departures that annually occur., with the department saying the trend is similar to what is happening to police departments nationwide.
These increased departures are coming at the same time the department faces more demands, such as responding to an increase in threats to members of Congress.
In response to Bolton’s testimony, the United States Capitol Police said it “agrees with the inspector general that the department must continue to improve and expand its intelligence and protective capabilities,” adding, “although there is more work to do, the department has made immense progress in first addressing the specific failures that led to the Jan. 6 attack,” according to NBC News.
Bolton said he intends to release a final report about the Capitol Police performance in connection to Jan. 6 in the next few days.
