Members of Congress have been falling all over themselves to praise the bravery of the Capitol Police since the attack on January 6th. Behind the scenes, however, Capitol Police cast ballots in a vote of no confidence in their management.
On the ballot were acting Chief Yogananda Pittman, Assistant Chief Chad Thomas, acting Assistant Chief Sean Gallagher, Deputy Chief Jeffrey Pickett, Deputy Chief Eric Waldow, and Deputy Chief Timothy Bowen., as reported on BuzzFeed News. The vote came following the attack that led to the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, and left dozens of other officers injured.
In a memo to rank-and-file officers, the union’s executive board explained why they were targeting those chiefs: “We cannot begin to address the systemic failures of the Department without new leadership,” the memo said. “We have leaders in this Department. Leaders that we trust and who will work with the union to make the changes we need to make. These leaders exist, but not at the Chief, Assistant Chief and Deputy Chief level.”
Officers cast their no-confidence ballots during a 24-hour period that started at 3 p.m. on Thursday. The vote is nonbinding and cannot by itself remove top brass. But for one veteran officer, the vote is key to moving the conversation from what he described as “political theater” to real accountability that would force department leadership and Congress to address officers’ concerns.
But this veteran officer isn’t confident that even removing those chiefs would be enough to change a culture in which he said they’re treated like glorified TSA agents by members of Congress who bristle at them doing even basic police work, often demanding that officers wave them and their visitors through security checkpoints. “For the culture to change,” he said, “members of Congress would have to start respecting officers.”
Both Democrats and Republicans have lauded officers for the quick thinking that saved a number of members of Congress and then–vice president Mike Pence from the “rioters,” but officers are angry precisely because they were forced to improvise after their managers failed to plan for the attack.
Capitol Police officers, in the wake of the attack on the Capitol, want more than just to be called heroes.
They want Capitol Police leadership and Congress, which directly oversees the department, to radically change its culture, which they said, directly led to the catastrophic failure to prepare for the Capitol riot.
The officers said they believe the first step to overhauling the agency would be introducing transparency and accountability. “We had a lot of brass that was out there front and center, but where were you at on the 6th?” he said. “Where were you at when people needed you to make decisions?”
What little was known about the department before January 6th largely came from Freedom of Information requests, alleging discrimination filed by women and minority officers against the agency.
On Thursday morning, shortly before the no-confidence vote started, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that officers who were on duty on the day of the attack would receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor bestowed by Congress.
For one veteran officer, who spoke to BuzzFeed News last month and whose story was highlighted by Rep. Jamie Raskin in the Democrats’ opening statement during the impeachment hearing, news that he and his colleagues would be receiving the Congressional Gold Medal was “like a shot of adrenaline in the arm” after an emotional roller coaster of a week.
But for another, the medal felt like a distraction to officers’ efforts to use the no-confidence vote to call for substantive change within the department.
“We are paid to do a job. We don’t much want or need the recognition,” said the veteran with nearly two decades on the force. “If they wanted to show their appreciation, there are a myriad of
other ways to do that.”
“Everyone would trade any of this in for Sicknick back, as well as everyone who is out with their various injuries. Political theater is part of the game; it just feels slimy and disingenuous,” he said.
“We were being utilized as props. They had us in the plaza and they’re taking pictures and all this stuff,” he said. “I have nothing but respect for him [Officer Sicknick] and only want to honor his memory, but it just didn’t sit right with me or a lot of officers I spoke to.”
