Many of the Capitol building’s weaknesses that made it vulnerable during the Jan. 6 riot remain unfixed nearly two years after the violent attack, according to a warning from the former Capitol Police chief.
Steven Sund, who resigned shortly after the Jan. 6 riot, offered a grave warning that the Capitol building remains vulnerable to attacks due to communication failures within the federal government and its law enforcement, the former police chief wrote in the newly released book Courage Under Fire. During the Jan. 6 riot, Capitol law enforcement scrambled to respond to the attack and failed to act on earlier warnings — mistakes that could easily happen again, he wrote.
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“Almost two years after the events of Jan. 6, the department is not in a better place or on a readier footing,” Sund wrote, according to an excerpt obtained by the Washington Post. “Hundreds of officers have left the department since Jan. 6 and many feel it is only going to get worse.”
Part of the reason the Capitol building was left so vulnerable to rioters on Jan. 6 was that law enforcement officials failed to act on warnings that right-wing extremists could be planning to attack while Congress met to certify the election, according to Sund. To make it worse, some of the warning flags that were received by public safety officials were never relayed to Sund, leaving his agency unprepared on the day of the riot.
“The security and information-sharing policies and mandates put in place after September 11 failed miserably on January 6,” Sund wrote. “We failed miserably to see the apparent warning signs and the danger, like a ‘gray rhino,’ charging right at us.”
Communication breakdowns on the day of the riot also left the Capitol vulnerable to violence, and Sund recalled severe delays in sending help to Capitol Hill that prolonged the attack. Sund wrote he pleaded for National Guard reinforcements at the Capitol but that officials hesitated because of the optics.
However, it was later discovered that the Pentagon sent security teams to the homes of military officials in Washington, D.C., despite none being under attack, according to Sund.
“It’s a response I will never forget for the rest of my life,” Sund wrote, recalling feeling “nauseated” and “mad as hell” as he urged Pentagon leaders for reinforcements to be sent to the Capitol.
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Looking back, Sund said he blames himself and his team responsible for the attack.
“Why were we so unprepared?” he wrote.
