Outside of Washington, Republicans take pride in supporting police officers and shielding them from calls to defend their departments. But in the U.S. Capitol, tensions are rising between Capitol Police and members of the minority party.
Some Capitol Police changes were implemented in response to security failures that allowed a mob to breach the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. But a number of incidents, from the installation of metal detectors outside the House floor to alleged questioning of a staff member about legislative notes written on a whiteboard, have some Republicans feeling as if they are under surveillance or being treated as perpetrators of violence.
Beneath it all, some Republicans point the finger at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leadership in Congress, suspecting the moves are politically motivated as Republicans tear into Democrats and Capitol Police for not preventing the breach on Jan. 6.
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“Seemingly isolated incidents that have occurred across campus have greatly increased member hesitation and diminished trust in the leadership of Capitol security,” House Administration Committee ranking member Rodney Davis of Illinois, along with Republican Reps. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia and Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, wrote in a letter to Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton last week about “erosion of trust.”
“Since January 6th, the Majority has politicized campus security, fomenting distrust among Republicans and raising doubts among members as to the unbiased, impartial security decisions being made around the Capitol complex,” the Republicans wrote.
Metal detectors
One of the first recent incidents that peeved Republicans was the placement of metal detectors outside the House chamber in mid-January 2021 following the Capitol riot and concerns about members bringing firearms onto the House floor. Officers turned into enforcers of the policy, wanding members and reporting members, some of whom were fined, when they skirted the rules.
After a Capitol Police briefing with the House Republican Conference last month, a readout from Indiana Republican Rep. Jim Banks said that the magnetometers “deplete USCP resources that are needed elsewhere.”
Field offices
Later in the year, Capitol Police announced that they would open field offices in California and Florida in order to probe threats to lawmakers. That prompted fears of federal overreach from a few Republicans. Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz expressed concern about Capitol Police “mission creep” and using “national security authorities to turn against our own people.”
The idea behind the field offices was to take a “regional approach” to assess threats to lawmakers. There were 9,600 threats to lawmakers in 2021, up from 8,000 in 2020 and 4,000 to 5,000 in the years before that, according to the department.
Mask enforcement
Republicans also recoiled at stated orders from Capitol Police to arrest staff members or visitors who refused to comply with the Capitol complex mask mandate. While that remains official policy, staff members and visitors are regularly maskless in House buildings without incident.
Officer in Rep. Troy Nehls’s office
Alarm about Capitol Police surveillance among Republicans increased this month.
Texas Republican Rep. Troy Nehls accused an officer of entering his office on Nov. 20, 2021, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and taking photos of “confidential legislative products.” A report filed by the officer said that a whiteboard included mentions of “body armor” and a map of a House office building with an X at an entrance. The next Monday, Nehls said, “special agents dressed like construction workers” returned to his office and questioned a staff member about the contents of the photo.
In a statement, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said that the officer entered the office to do a security check because the door was left open, followed up on that, and that “no case investigation was ever initiated or conducted into the Representative or his staff.”
But Nehls, who was the sheriff of Fort Bend County, Texas, for eight years before winning his suburban Houston House seat in 2020, maintains that the incident was “very strange” and that the officer “put on his own investigator hat.”
“The real question is, why me? Why me?” Nehls told the Washington Examiner in an interview. “I’ve been probably the most vocal critic of January 6th,” he said. Nehls added that he believes rioter Ashli Babbitt was “murdered” on Jan. 6 and questioned the investigation into Lt. Michael Byrd, the officer who shot her.
He also pointed a finger at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Nehls was selected by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to be on the House select committee formed to investigate the Capitol riot, but McCarthy boycotted the committee after Pelosi vetoed two of his picks.
Asked about Nehls’s allegations in a press conference, Pelosi said, “Don’t waste your time. I have no power over the Capitol Police.”
Nehls, though, noted that Pelosi appointed the House sergeant-at-arms, who, along with the Senate sergeant-at-arms and architect of the Capitol, make up the Capitol Police Board. Current House Sergeant-at-Arms William J. Walker was technically “elected” by unanimous consent in the House.
“Come on, Nancy. I’m sure when the Chief of Police walks into your office he assumes the position of attention,” Nehls told the Washington Examiner.
Daniel Schuman, policy director at the Demand Progress Education Fund, noted in a House Administration Committee hearing last week that there have been “a number of other circumstances of unusual behavior” by Capitol Police, including reports of officers shoving reporters in the Capitol basement in 2017 and an officer who left his gun unattended in 2019.
Checks on social media backgrounds
Further adding to Republican uneasiness was a report in Politico last month that Capitol Police have started investigating the public backgrounds and social media feeds of people who meet with lawmakers. In some instances, intelligence analysts were directed to run “background checks” on lawmakers’ donors, associates, and staff.
Capitol Police have defended combing through public information in order to protect lawmakers and the Capitol. In a letter responding to Republican lawmakers raising concerns about the practices described the article, Manger said that Politico’s article contained “inaccurate facts, misleading information, and unsupported conclusions.”
Checks of public information like that, Manger said, are only done when a lawmaker requests law enforcement coordination or when the sergeant-at-arms makes a request through their role protecting lawmakers at an event. Only open-source information is used, not background checks using law enforcement databases.
The Capitol Police inspector general has opened an investigation, at the request of Manger, into concerns about the force’s surveillance for the purpose of security assessments.
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“We’re receiving full cooperation from the department,” Inspector General Bolton said in a hearing last week.
“Here’s my concern: The security apparatus of the United States Capitol is continuing to be politicized by Speaker Pelosi,” Rep. Steil of Wisconsin said in a hearing last week. “All of us support the men and women of the Capitol Police, but we’re challenged by some of the leadership decisions we’re seeing.”
