Numerous U.S. Capitol Police officers are on the brink of turning in their “retirement papers” due to inadequate leadership, a prominent law enforcement union said Friday.
“Many officers that are retirement eligible are seriously looking at turning in their retirement papers. Since [the Capitol Hill siege on] January 6th, several officers have retired as a result,” Gus Papathanasiou, chairman of the United States Capitol Police Labor Committee, said in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner. “Additionally, I cannot tell you the number of younger officers who have confided in me since the insurrection who are actively looking at other police agencies or even new careers.”
Papathanasiou cited the “lack of trust in our leadership who clearly failed us on January 6th,” in addition to other agencies offering “better working conditions” and “retirement benefits” as the primary reasons for the exodus.
The union boss insisted that Congress must combat “both the leadership and quality of life issues” if it “wants to recruit and retain officers to meet the heightened security threat.”
Prosecutors have charged more than 300 people in connection to the attack on Congress while lawmakers counted electoral votes and sought to affirm President Biden’s 2020 victory.
Five people died during the riot. Capitol Police said Officer Brian Sicknick was fatally injured during the siege. He received the rare tribute of lying in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda before his cremated remains were sent to Arlington National Cemetery to be laid to rest. His death remains under investigation. Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and Trump supporter, was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer while she attempted to climb through a window into the Speaker’s Lobby. Three others died from “medical emergencies,” according to officials. Two additional Capitol Police officers who responded to the riot later died by suicide, local police said.
Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund resigned in the wake of the Capitol siege. Half a dozen officers with the law enforcement body have been suspended without pay, and 29 others were being investigated by authorities, the department said last month.
On Tuesday, acting Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee, former House of Representatives Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving, Sund, and former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms and doorkeeper Michael Stenger all told Senate Rules Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar that they believed the attack was planned and coordinated before Jan. 6, but two blamed not receiving intelligence for delayed and unorganized responses.
“Available intelligence pointed to a large presence of some of the same groups that had contributed to violence in the city after demonstrations in November and December,” Contee wrote in a statement submitted ahead of a joint hearing before the Senate Rules Committee and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “The District did not have [that] intelligence pointing to a coordinated assault on the Capitol.”
Papathanasiou previously slammed department leadership in late January after acting Chief Yogananda Pittman blamed uniformed officers for falling short of their “own high standards” during the unrest.
“The fact they did not relay this information to the officers on duty prior to the insurrection is inexcusable,” Papathanasiou said in a scathing letter. “The officers are angry and I don’t blame them. The entire executive team failed us and they must be held accountable. Their inaction cost lives.”
Papathanasiou also disputed Pittman’s contention that poor radio communication was partly to blame for the lack of coordination in quelling the attack.
“The real communications breakdown was silence from our leadership, before the insurrection and while it was underway,” he wrote. “They failed to share key intelligence with officers in advance, they failed to prepare adequately, they failed to equip our officers with a plan and on that very day, they failed to lead.”
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Representatives for the Capitol Police and Papathanasiou did not immediately reply to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
