Acting Capitol police chief tells Congress that the department ‘failed’ during riots

Pittman’s acknowledgment comes as U.S. Capitol police officers debate whether to cast a vote of no confidence on department leaders who worked on the day of the uprising, including Pittman. One source told CNN that Pittman was the chief operating officer on the day of the siege at the Capitol and that he never took control of the radio or ordered the officers to do so in any way, in form or form. not.

Officials told CNN they felt abandoned and betrayed by the department’s leadership.

“Let me be clear: the department should have been more prepared for this attack,” Pittman said Tuesday. “By January 4, the department knew that the 6th rally would not look like any of the previous demonstrations held in 2020. We knew military groups and white supremacist organizations would attend it. We also knew that some of these participants intended to bring firearms and other weapons to the event. ‘

Eventually, Pittman accepted responsibility for mistakes made to protect the Capitol.

“As acting chief, I take responsibility for the mistakes made by the department, and I promise this committee, Congress, the American people and my USCP colleagues that we will do better in the future, but we must make changes,” she said.

Acting Sergeant at the Armed Forces Timothy Blodgett on Tuesday issued a blunt assessment of the security failures that took place, both to prepare for a protest of this nature and to respond to events as they unfolded, according to his prepared statement during Tuesday’s briefing before lawmakers.

“Clearly there has been a failure in preparation. Whether it was insufficient or conflicting intelligence, lack of ability to translate the intelligence into action, insufficient preparation or an insufficient ability to mobilize partner agencies for immediate assistance. “A series of events, once thought unfathomable, unfolded so that our most holy halls could be broken into. And unfortunately, several lives were lost, including Officer Brian Sicknick and Officer Howard Liebengood,” Blodgett said in his remarks.

Pittman outlined four things that ill-equipped the department to respond to the attack, including the lack of manpower. The acting chief said USCP officers were not getting the right equipment on hand or easily accessible, and that the process for sealing the building “may not have been followed consistently.” Finally, Pittman said that during the attack, the department was difficult to hear about communication over their radios and the broadcasting system.

Since the uprising, Pittman has said that USCP has coordinated with the National Guard to secure the Capitol and the complex around it, and that he has “taken steps to ensure” that USCP shares and receives critical intelligence information from its law enforcement partners. Pittman also said that the department’s intelligence director now holds internal information sessions with USCP officials on a daily basis.

Pittman said the Capitol’s security infrastructure needs to change going forward and that the Department needs access to additional resources – both manpower and physical assets. “

This story has been updated.