More than 70 officers with the U.S. Capitol Police have retired since the Jan. 6 insurrection, the department’s union says.
The rate of attrition slightly outpaces expected retirement rates, and the union fears more retirements may be coming if officials can’t convince officers who are eligible for retirement to stay on the force.
“What keeps me awake at night is not the challenge of hiring and training more police officers, but keeping the officers we have right now. We have many officers on the fence about whether to stay with this department,” USCP Labor Committee Chairman Gus Papathanasiou said in a statement on Thursday, according to multiple outlets. “Since January 6th, we’ve had more than 70 officers retire or resign from the department.”
HOUSE PASSES $1.9 BILLION CAPITOL SECURITY MEASURE CREATING PERMANENT NATIONAL GUARD FORCE
A representative for U.S. Capitol Police told the Washington Examiner it takes 18 applicants to accept one recruit “due to the Department’s high standards for excellence and integrity.” Each class contains roughly 24 recruits, and the department has brought on one class of 23 recruits since Jan. 6, with four additional classes scheduled this year and 12 more next year, the representative added.
Papathanasiou suggested low morale within the ranks is prompting many officers to consider early retirement.
“Almost one quarter of our officers are eligible to retire in the next few years,” he said. “These more senior officers joined right after the 9/11 attack 20 years ago and have seen two of their colleagues die in the line of duty this year. They’re now facing 6-day work weeks and double shifts for the foreseeable future. Many question why they should stay.”
The union’s statement also criticized a House bill intended to increase security on Capitol Hill, saying the $1.9 billion proposal failed to include changes to officers’ retirement plans that would incentivize them to stay on the force despite nearly a quarter of the department’s officers becoming eligible for retirement “in the next few years.”
“Our officers work incredibly hard, accumulating more than 700,000 hours of overtime per year, yet none of our overtime counts toward our retirement,” Papathanasiou said.
The spending package faced eleventh-hour resistance from a group of progressive Democrats dubbed “the Squad,” who have expressed support for defunding police departments in the past.
“Increasing law enforcement funds does not inherently protect or safeguard the Capitol Hill or surrounding D.C. community,” Reps. Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley, all Squad members, said in a joint statement following the vote on Thursday. “We cannot support this increased funding while many of our communities continue to face police brutality while marching in the streets and while questions about the disparate response between insurrectionists and those protesting in defense of Black lives go unanswered.”
The bill, which would add the National Guard to the Capitol security force, narrowly passed with a final vote of 213 yeas and 212 nays, with three voting present.
One day earlier, 35 House Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to approve a commission to study the Jan. 6 siege of Capitol Hill. The measure, which passed 252-175 with substantial GOP support, calls for a 10-member panel appointed evenly by Republicans and Democrats, who would also share the power to issue subpoenas.
Top Republicans rejected the commission despite the appearance of bipartisanship, arguing Democrats could use the commission as a political tool to tie Republicans to violence. Former President Donald Trump warned House Republicans not to back the proposal, calling it a “trap.”
“See, 35 wayward Republicans — they just can’t help themselves. We have much better policy and are much better for the Country, but the Democrats stick together, the Republicans don’t,” Trump said in a statement after the vote.
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The commission’s future remains uncertain in the evenly divided Senate.
