[House Hearing, 114 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
SAFEGUARDING OUR SYMBOL OF DEMOCRACY: U.S. CAPITOL POLICE'S MANAGEMENT
PLAN FOR 2017 AND BEYOND
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HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON HOUSE
ADMINISTRATION
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
MAY 17, 2016
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration
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Available on the Internet:
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COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION
CANDICE S. MILLER, Michigan, Chairman
GREGG HARPER, Mississippi ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania
RICHARD NUGENT, Florida Ranking Minority Member
RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois ZOE LOFGREN, California
BARBARA COMSTOCK, Virginia JUAN VARGAS, California
MARK WALKER, North Carolina
Professional Staff
Sean Moran, Staff Director
Jamie Fleet, Minority Staff Director
SAFEGUARDING OUR SYMBOL OF DEMOCRACY: U.S. CAPITOL POLICE'S MANAGEMENT
PLAN FOR 2017 AND BEYOND
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TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2016
House of Representatives,
Committee on House Administration,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 11:12 a.m., in Room
1310, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Candice S. Miller
(chairman of the Committee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Miller, Harper, Nugent, Davis,
Comstock, Brady, Lofgren, and Vargas.
Staff Present: Sean Moran, Staff Director; John Clocker,
Deputy Staff Director; Katie Patru, Deputy Staff Director; Erin
McCracken, Communications Director; Brad Walvort, Professional
Staff Member; Cole Felder, Legal Counsel; C. Maggie Moore,
Legislative Clerk; Tim Sullivan, Staff Assistant; Jamie Fleet,
Minority Staff Director; Matt Pinkus, Minority Senior Policy
Advisor; Khalil Abboud, Minority Deputy Staff Director/Director
of Legislative Operations; Mike Harrison, Minority Chief
Counsel.
The Chairman. I call to order the Committee on House
Administration for today's hearing on the U.S. Capitol Police.
The hearing record will remain open for 5 legislative days so
that members might submit any materials that they wish to be
included.
A quorum is present so we might proceed.
We are meeting today to hear from the new U.S. Capitol
Chief of Police, Matt Verderosa.
As a Committee, Chief, we certainly want to congratulate
you on your appointment, and we are so looking forward to
continuing to work with you shoulder to shoulder. So we
appreciate you coming.
He is going to be talking, of course, today about his
vision, his direction for the Capitol Police moving forward.
Some of the specific items we hope to discuss today include the
Capitol Police's budgets, their priorities, recent security
events, respective actions taken, as well as the Capitol Police
security initiatives, both current and future.
The Capitol Police is a law enforcement agency with a very
unique mission, certainly. They are charged with protecting and
serving the U.S. Capitol, the seat of our Nation's democracy.
This is an institution, of course, of physical symbols of our
free society. Unfortunately, our institution of freedom and
democracy also is a target. So there will always be a need for
security restrictions, but a complete ban on access would be
extremely detrimental to the institution. The American people
need to be able to access and to meet with their Members of
Congress.
Since Congress created the U.S. Capitol Police in 1828,
they have worked very hard to fulfill this dual mission of
safety and accessibility. We certainly understand that this is
no small task. Each of us, Members, staff, and visitors alike,
have the utmost respect for the men and women who serve and
protect our Nation's Capital.
We are holding today's hearing as part of our Committee's
responsibility for oversight and to review the safety and
security of the Capitol and its facilities. Our last hearing
actually with the Capitol Police was in May of 2015. Today the
Committee will hear from the new Chief on the progress that has
been made, his vision to continue to develop the force, the
goals and priorities for the operation of the Capitol Police.
Our Committee, of course, works with the Capitol Police on
a daily basis to ensure that they have the tools that they
need, the authority, and the support that they need to keep our
Capitol safe and secure for all. The Capitol Police are
responsible for reviewing security protocols necessary to keep
the Capitol safe and to ensure that those protocols are tested
and deployed against any threats that we might face.
As with any law enforcement organization, the
responsibility for meeting the mission begins and ends at the
top, and that responsibility now rests with Chief Verderosa.
The Chief understands the security needs of the Capitol
Complex. The Chief has served in a number of roles within the
Capitol Police since 1986. He has seen firsthand how new and
variable threats have only increased over the years.
While there are some sensitive aspects about the operations
and capabilities of the Capitol Police, there certainly are a
number of items that we would like to discuss and receive an
update on as well, certainly about some of the various
incidents that had happened.
I know we have had an opportunity, Chief, to talk, I think,
privately with all of the Members here about the shooting
incident that occurred at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center. And
by the way, that, I will just say, before you can get a chance,
your staff, your Capitol Police, that thing happened by the
book. They did such a fantastic job of reacting and responding.
I mean, that thing, you could write a book, that thing was
perfect; that response.
As well, we had all of these protests, week-long protests
that happened recently here. We might like to hear about when
you were processing such large number of arrests, how that all
went, lessons learned, perhaps, for that. Also about your
leadership team, your strategic plan, your goals and
objectives, training, monitoring threats across the campus as
well.
We have talked a little bit about garage security. I don't
know if you want to touch on that today. It is always an issue,
something that we all met about again recently. And I know you
have met with many Members about that. Our Sergeant at Arms is
very, very involved in that as well.
So I will also say, before I ask my Ranking Member to make
a comment, I think since the gyrocopter incident we have all
seen as Members of Congress here an increased amount of
communication from the U.S. Capitol Police on various
incidents. In fact, we probably get almost more information
than we need sometimes, but more is better. And so I am
certainly very appreciative of that. I don't think any Member
wants to be in a position where we are watching something
unfold on the Capitol lawn on FOX News or CNN or whatever you
are watching. So that, I think, is very much appreciated as
well.
And so this Committee, of course, Chief, is here to assist
the Capitol Police because we all share a common goal, and that
is protecting the U.S. Capitol campus and everyone who works
here and certainly all of the visitors, millions of visitors
that come here each and every year.
So we certainly thank the Chief for his appearance here
today. We are looking forward to his testimony.
I would like to recognize my Ranking Member, Mr. Brady, for
his opening statement.
Mr. Brady. Thank you, Madam Chair, for holding this very
important hearing this morning.
Good to see you, Chief. Thank you for being here.
Chief Verderosa. Good morning, sir.
Mr. Brady. I want to comment briefly and thank the Chief
for how visible he has been with the congressional community.
Your predecessor was here 3\1/2\ years. I think I met him
one time toward the end of his tenure. You have been here 3
months. I have met with you four times. I appreciate that.
As the son of a police officer, I know how hard your job
can be, and I have heard from rank-and-file members about a
positive change in the tone at the top of the organization, and
my staff advise me that we are all working very well together.
So thank you for that.
I would also like to thank you for traveling to
Philadelphia last month and for taking the time to meet with
our mayor, Jim Kenney, and myself to talk about congressional
security at the convention.
I want to mention this for the benefit of my Republican
colleagues, that our security professionals in Philadelphia are
very impressed with the Chief and our Sergeant at Arms. I thank
him for coming up and seeing us in Philadelphia.
You, again, showed the proper respect to all our Members,
and we appreciate you. So that will speak very well for you and
your convention in Cleveland also.
Thank you for your service, and I look forward to hearing
your statement.
Chief Verderosa. Thank you, sir.
The Chairman. I thank the gentleman.
I think both of those conventions are going to go
absolutely smooth, right, just smooth.
Any other Member wish to make an opening statement or
comment?
Okay. Let me formally introduce the Chief. On March 21,
2016, the Chief was sworn in as the new Chief of the U.S.
Capitol Police. Chief Verderosa is the ninth Chief and had been
serving as the Assistant Chief of Police since April of 2015.
The Chief has served in numerous roles with the U.S. Capitol
Police since 1986, including positions in the Uniformed and
Patrol Division, the Internal Affairs Division, the Training
and Services Bureau. In addition, he commanded the U.S. Capitol
Police's Review Task Force before becoming Assistant Chief.
And as Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, Chief Verderosa is
responsible for commanding a force of sworn and civilian
personnel who are dedicated to providing comprehensive law
enforcement, security, and protective operation services to the
U.S. Congress--Members, staff, and as I said, millions of
annual visitors as well, and to the surrounding complex also.
So, again, we certainly thank you for joining us, Chief. We
have your written testimony. The floor is yours. Take as much
time as you need. We appreciate you coming.
STATEMENT OF MATTHEW VERDEROSA, CHIEF OF POLICE, UNITED STATES
CAPITOL POLICE
Chief Verderosa. Thank you, ma'am. I certainly appreciate
the opportunity to be here.
Good morning, Members, and thank you for the opportunity to
appear before the Committee to discuss the United States
Capitol Police. I am joined here today by the Department's
Chief Administrative Officer, Mr. Richard Braddock; Deputy
Chief Richard Rudd; Deputy Chief Fred Rogers; and also Deputy
Chief Chad Thomas, who is staffing the airwaves right now,
watching operations while I am here.
Also with me is our General Counsel, Gretchen DeMar. And
members, representatives from the department's Office of
Inspector General.
Also, I would like to welcome other members of my executive
management team and also attending today, and I appreciate
their presence here today. Our FOP chairman, Jim Konczos of our
Labor Committee, and Gus Papathanasiou, who is the First Vice
Chairman. Also with us are members of the Teamsters, our other
union, who we work with on a daily basis.
I would like to thank the Committee for their steadfast
support of the United States Capitol Police. The regular
discussions that we have with you and your staff about our
programs and management of our mission are greatly valued, and
I am very grateful for the Committee's engagement and feedback
so that we can continuously meet the needs and expectations of
Congress.
Secondly, I would like to recognize the men and women of
the United States Capitol Police. Every day they publicly
demonstrate how American freedoms that we all hold dear are
carried out in our Nation's capital. They work tirelessly to
ensure that the Congress can conduct its legislative
responsibilities without disruption, all the while exhibiting
the utmost respect for the Constitution and the protection of
First Amendment liberties.
I am thoroughly impressed with their performance, which is
both seen and unseen by the public and the community, and I am
thankful for their desire to constantly rise to the occasion
and handle whatever comes our way.
I have been in Federal law enforcement for over 30 years,
serving in a number of roles. And now as Chief of the U.S.
Capitol Police, I have the responsibility to you, to the
Members of Congress, the Capitol Police Board, the
congressional staff, the visitors, and my employees to do
everything possible to protect and safeguard everyone every day
in a unique and open environment.
The threats and risks we face today are dynamic, they are
changing, they are sophisticated, and they create a greater
need for focus on national security. Coordinating with the
Capitol Police Board and consulting with our committees of
jurisdiction, including this Committee, the Committee on House
Administration, we have developed a 4-year strategy that
provides for growth of the department to fulfill three new
mission sets in an effort to further enhance the successful
long-term protection of the Capitol Complex.
These mission sets are the result of a constant threat
analysis, including intelligence gathered by our partners
globally and nationally. These initiatives consist of the
following: enhanced garage security, as we have talked about on
several occasions; pre-screeners and additional overwatch
personnel at various building access points; and also, the
further use of the enhanced portal screeners that we employed
for the first time during the State of the Union.
Members and staff will see several enhancements as a result
of the three initiatives. There will be a visible security
screening at House garage entry points and a more significant
officer presence outside Capitol Complex doors and access
points, including additional K-9 teams and subject to
interdiction officers. Visitors entering the House Chamber for
major events will undergo additional screening through enhanced
portal scanners, further keeping potential threats away from
the House of Representatives and the floor of the House.
There has been much discussion regarding resources for the
department and the long-term viability of these initiatives. As
the Chief of Police and as a steward of the taxpayers' dollars,
it is my fiduciary responsibility to look at every possibility
within existing assets to accomplish our mission before I seek
additional assets and resources. The Congress has been very
generous to the department, and I will do my due diligence to
first look within and not request something unless it is truly
needed.
One of the tough decisions I have had to make to meet the
new mission sets within our current resources is to find
staffing to accomplish some of the additional screening
requirements within our existing budget. To do this, and after
discussing my concept with Chairman Konczos of the FOP Labor
Committee, I have determined that it is most appropriate to
modify some of our off-post time rotations in the Uniformed
Services Bureau from the current standard of a one-to-four
rotation to a one-to-five during shifts when the majority of
officers are working, Monday through Friday, day and evenings.
This will make additional manpower available and will result in
only approximately 10 minutes less off-post time or standby
time for employees.
With these enhancements come important opportunities. The
modification of off-post rotations will result in more
specialty job opportunities for employees throughout the
department, specifically in the area of K-9 and subject
interdiction. These officers will provide police coverage in
zones outside access points to the complex.
I should note that this change does not alter the
longstanding contractual obligations with our CBA, and the off-
post time remains well above the minimum required by the
collective bargaining agreement for the purposes of conducting
in-service training, allowing for appropriate relief time for
officers who routinely are focused on working the security
equipment.
While some additional resources will be necessary in the
outyears to complete the initiatives and to provide stationary
posts, I am confident in the department's ability to meet these
new mission sets, and we will continue to look for ways to
offset any cost and potential reapportionment of how we assign
personnel.
In the months ahead, we have a number of high-profile
protective events that will require much attention and manpower
resources. Later this month, the annual Memorial Day rehearsal
and concert will take place, followed by the 4th of July
celebration on the west front of the Capitol. In July, the
department will also be focusing its attention on the two
Presidential nominating conventions in Cleveland, Ohio, and
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where we will be protecting Members
of Congress.
In addition, we are officially planning the 58th Inaugural
of the President of the United States, which takes place on
January 20, 2017. While this national special security event
takes place on Capitol Grounds every 4 years, it is prudent and
necessary to begin preparations early enough to ensure absolute
success in the execution of this significant mission set.
As the former commander of the department's policy and
planning operations, I fully understand the importance of
setting meaningful performance metrics focused on outcomes
rather than outputs. We are currently in the process of
building the foundation to better collect, analyze, and share
the data that we collect department-wide with the ultimate goal
of having information that allows my staff to be better
informed in making management and security decisions.
The department is also actively engaged in addressing and
resolving recommendations made by the Office of the Inspector
General. Since 2006, the USCP Inspector General has made 310
recommendations to the department. We have closed 255 by fully
implementing the recommendations. We are actively working on
closing the remaining 55 open recommendations, and annually I
will continue to propose key areas for the Inspector General to
examine so that she and her team can assist me in making needed
changes that will make us a better department.
In closing, I want to share with you some of my priorities
for the near term. I have always believed that the department's
mission is simple yet extremely critical. I want to get back to
the basics and not overcomplicate policing. I want to leverage
existing resources in the law enforcement community to become
smarter and more efficient, especially in the area of
intelligence gathering. I plan to place a greater emphasis on
training to help our workforce remain focused and to fight
complacency and to ensure that supervisors are prepared to
manage. These are the basic areas that I will focus on during
the next year.
Finally, I think it is important to discuss and mention the
March 28, 2016, shooting incident in the U.S. Capitol Visitors
Center. From all practical perspectives, I want to say that the
screening process works. On that day, we had an individual
intent on wreaking havoc. He was detected to be carrying a
weapon during the process we employ each day to screen people
visiting the Capitol Complex.
We were prepared, we responded appropriately, and it should
serve as a lesson to others who may want to come to the Hill to
do harm. Our highly trained officers will stop those
individuals who wish to do us harm. I am extremely proud of the
officers involved in this incident, and I am grateful to our
partner agencies for their assistance, both throughout the
event and following the incident.
Again, thank you for the opportunity to testify here today
about the United States Capitol Police. I am truly humbled to
be here, and I would be pleased to answer any questions you
have.
[The statement of Chief Verderosa follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Chief.
I would ask, we mentioned about better communication from
the U.S. Capitol Police to all the Members of Congress. If you
could perhaps expand on that a bit of how your agency
communicates and how you work with your brother agencies here
locally. For instance, when we had the Navy Yard incident and
just communicating with D.C. Police or other agencies as well.
How is that all working?
Chief Verderosa. Certainly. We have a very good
relationship with our partner agencies here in D.C.,
particularly the Metropolitan Police, the United States Park
Police, the United States Secret Service, Federal Protective
Service, Supreme Court Police. We have communications,
interoperable communications with our partner agencies. We have
a direct switch line to the Secret Service, the Metropolitan
Police, the Park Police.
We work very closely with, we are embedded with several FBI
task forces, the JTTF, and we have an ongoing relationship with
the Supreme Court and the Federal Protective Service. And they
actually man our command center on a regular basis, on a daily
basis, so that we have direct communications.
We also work with other agencies on an ad hoc basis. We
have interoperable radio communications with most of the local
agencies, and we are working to solidify further the ability to
communicate directly from a command perspective. We meet
regularly with the Metropolitan Police in their law enforcement
partners meeting every Monday. I attend various meetings, as do
my subordinate officials, at a multitude of levels, on a
multitude of issues, regarding the ongoing law enforcement
issues, threats, and events that are occurring throughout the
District of Columbia.
We certainly have lessons learned from all of these major
events, including the Navy Yard, the second Navy Yard incident,
and the difference between the first and second in terms of
communication was extreme. Incident command, as a matter of
fact, Deputy Chief Rogers was command post representative for
the United States Capitol Police during that second ongoing
Navy Yard issue.
We all employ incident command system processes for
leadership and command, area command, and we communicate on a
regular and daily basis during events and during the off times.
Offshoot of some of the gyrocopter incident was communication
with the community. We have improved our messaging matrix. And
I apologize if we give you too much. I would rather have you
have too much than too little. Obviously, it is important that
you know what is going on for situational awareness and for the
effect that incidents have on the legislative process. We take
great strides to make sure that you have the information that
you need, both on the House side and the Senate side.
We shortly will have a joint congressional messaging
process that is being worked on jointly with all of the
stakeholders, and I look forward to that. So that will cut out
some of the--if there is delay, it will certainly cut out
redundancy and it will be more efficient.
The Chairman. If I could ask just one other question,
Chief, and I appreciate the answer to the first one. But we
talk about investment with the U.S. Capitol Police, and
certainly there is no second for investing in people and all
kinds of technology that can assist you, resourcing you
properly. I will tell you, the K-9s are unbelievable. I mean,
what a critical component. I mean, those dogs can just find
things that no computer can, it seems like, right?
Chief Verderosa. Oh, absolutely.
The Chairman. Yeah. How do you do with the K-9s? Do you
need more of them? How do you see that unfolding?
Chief Verderosa. We are expanding our K-9 capability by six
dogs in the near term. Part of that is the traditional EOD-type
sweeps, and we have some other new techniques that we use,
which I would be happy to discuss offline, which will just
contribute to being a force multiplier for us in terms of what
we do.
Absolutely, the dogs are invaluable. They can do many
things that humans can't. They detect things at long distances.
They can detect things that we obviously would not know were
there. So we do literally hundreds and thousands of sweeps
every year with the dogs, and again, they are invaluable to us.
We currently have an opening in our--and we get tremendous
competition for the openings in the K-9-unit. It is really,
truly incredible.
The Chairman. Right. Thank you very much.
I recognize our Ranking Member, Mr. Brady.
Mr. Brady. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Chief, as you know, I do represent Philadelphia. Thank you
for your visit. That is where the Democratic National
Convention will take place. But I would like for you to discuss
your preparations from the Capitol Police perspective, not only
in Philadelphia but also in Cleveland. What were your
preparations there?
Chief Verderosa. Absolutely. Our convention planning is
well underway. We have been working. Our Dignitary Protection
Division has the lead. The Secret Service is the lead planner
for both events, both in Philadelphia and in Cleveland.
As part of the NSSE broad approach and Committee approach,
we planned these events within that framework. So we have
employed the NSSE framework for any number of major events,
including previous conventions, State of the Union addresses,
and the inaugurals, and it is really a sound system that we
cover all bases.
Our Dignitary Protection Division has made multiple visits
to both venues, both cities. They have procured the requisite
lodging. And we are in the process of designing a security plan
for those specific venues, both the actual convention venues
and any ancillary venues for events that are occurring outside
the main venue.
I appreciate the opportunity to travel to Philadelphia and
meet with you, and I appreciate the introduction that you gave
us to the Philadelphia officials. It helped me tremendously in
my ability to communicate the message to my troops and to make
sure that we are doing all the things that we need to do.
We are going to be traveling to, either myself or
representatives, along with the House Sergeant at Arms and
other stakeholders, to Cleveland in the very near future, just
as we did in the Philadelphia trip. We will continue to work
with our law enforcement partners, both State, local, and
Federal, to ensure that the security plan for the Member
protection--and that is the reason we are going to be there, to
make sure that the Members of Congress have a safe event and we
can protect the interests of our statutory protectees.
We will continue to regularly brief the Capitol Police
Board, and my staff is available to brief the Committee at your
request on the status of the planning.
Mr. Brady. Thank you, Chief.
Also, it goes without saying, the people you brought here,
you have a pretty good relationship with the other unions, the
Teamsters and the police unions. And I also know because they
are not knocking down my door, and they have been for the last
3 years, every other month coming in and trying to complain
about what we can do to be helpful. That is not happening. So I
know you are doing a good job.
But just tell me, how often do you meet with your reps?
Chief Verderosa. I meet with Chairman Konczos and his team,
it is about every 2 weeks. But in between, his staff and my
staff are working on issues. Dominic Storelli, formerly of
House Administration, is my Chief of Staff, and he works
directly with Jim on a number of issues. I meet on a number of
issues, whether it is contract negotiations or just daily
grievance type issues.
The philosophy for me, and I have known Chairman Konczos
and Gus Papathanasiou for many years, particularly Jim for
almost 30 years, and we have a mutual respect for each other's
positions. I have asked Jim to be here today, and I appreciate
his attendance. Since I was appointed, we reinstituted the
regular meetings. I plan on continuing the regular meetings.
We also believe--I think we both believe that there is
significant common ground that we can address issues, try to
resolve issues at the lowest level before they become
grievances, and we work on things of mutual interest. Of
course, we will probably disagree on some issues, but I think
we have the kind of relationship that we will be able to work
through those issues in an amicable way and try to do what is
best for the Congress.
Mr. Brady. Thank you, Chief. And thank the men for the job
that you do every single day. And it is a pleasure to be
working with you.
Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
The Chairman. Mr. Harper is recognized.
Mr. Harper. Thank you, Madam Chair.
And, Chief, thank you for being here. I know this has been
a very sobering weekend with the memorial service that was
Sunday and how that, I know, means so much to you, and your
attendance we greatly appreciate.
You know, last week, the House passed some important bills,
and one of which was to fund the Bulletproof Vest Program to
help local law enforcement with that lifesaving bulletproof
vest, to help on those funding issues there.
And I know you and I had an opportunity to meet. I want to
thank you for coming to my office and for us having that
opportunity. And as I told you in that meeting, if I had an
issue or a problem, I am going to come to you and we will
discuss it. I won't be running to the press to talk about it.
You and I will have a chance to do that, and I want to
reiterate that here.
But what can we do as a Committee and as individual Members
of Congress to help you do your job? And I am not talking about
the funding issues.
Chief Verderosa. Sure.
Mr. Harper. What else can we do?
Chief Verderosa. I thank you for meeting with me, both
privately and for your comments today, sir. I appreciate the
Committee's support on initiatives, whether it is garage
security or portal scanners or any of the other issues that
come up.
It is interesting, because it is such a large institution
and I have a very large workforce. Sometimes it takes a little
while for information to filter down. We are working on the
communication piece. But it is also incumbent on us to assist
the Sergeant at Arms on both sides and the leadership to
communicate the message of any changes that we do.
Change does not come easy for people, both within the
department and in general. I know that. I have a 24-year-old.
It is hard to change anything without an argument or a reason.
I have to explain my reasoning. And I try to do that because it
is the right thing to do. I want to be able to communicate
changes. And that is one of the reasons that I do meet with the
union leadership. I want to have that open communication.
But I also want to have that with the community, and I
intend to continue to visit Member offices and try to advise
you all, everybody, both on the Committee and off, on what we
are doing and why we do things. Because I think if you have the
information, it helps sell the message and it helps us change
sort of the mindset, whether we are going to institute new
operations or new procedures.
So I appreciate the opportunity to be able to come to the
Members and be able to explain why we do things. I think it is
important to maintain that communication.
Mr. Harper. Chief, firearm qualifications, certifications
are very important, and I know we are in an interim here----
Chief Verderosa. Yes.
Mr. Harper [continuing]. With the range being out of place.
Tell me what you are doing in the interim and how the new
facility will be an improvement over the old.
Chief Verderosa. Appreciate the question, sir.
We are in our current cycle, even though we are off site.
In the interim, while our range is down and we are preparing
for the opening--the reopening--of the new range, I want to
thank the Congress and the Architect for providing the funds
and the space and the ability to have a range that is so close
to where we work.
What it does for us is it helps us minimize the impact of
having our sworn workforce off the grounds in a status that is
either not working or in training. It is travel time. It really
helps us to have the range here. We had the old range in the
Rayburn for over 50 years, and we got tremendous amount of use
of the range. And I couldn't even quantify how much time and
effort we save by having the range locally.
Our goal is to have the new range open up soon, by Labor
Day, and have it in use for at least another 50 years. It will
certainly outlast me. But so far in this cycle we have
qualified 87 percent of the Police Department.
Now, we have reaped some benefit, even though there is a
little bit of cost associated with sending them out to
Cheltenham, Maryland, where our entry-level academy is. We have
maximized the use of that time by continuing the training day.
So we send officers out for the entire day rather than have
them traveling back to the Hill. So we leverage the ability to
use some more of our training time during that extra day.
I look forward to having the range back here on the Hill,
though, as you can see, we probably will be able to finish our
current cycle by June 1, hopefully, if not, sometime in June,
and then we will move onto the second. We have semiannual
qualification, so we shoot twice a year in the fiscal year. We
are a little bit off the cycle, however. With the indulgence of
the stakeholders, we have a great plan to get the range up and
running, and it really will provide us with the ability to
change how we train. It is a dynamic range, and it is really
helpful for us to be able to tactically use a range.
Mr. Harper. Great. Thank you, Chief.
And I yield back.
The Chairman. The Chair recognizes Ms. Lofgren.
Ms. Lofgren. Thanks very much.
And welcome to you, Chief. It is good to meet you.
And I am hoping that at some point we can have a closed
session with the Chief, because there are some questions it
probably wouldn't be smart to ask in a public environment, but
that we should get the answers to.
Just two things. I was concerned in discussing this with
the prior Chief, that although there was communication with
other law enforcement agencies, there didn't appear to be a
written mutual aid protocol. And so I am interested in not
going through it today, but in reviewing that with you in terms
of the protocol, what it is, and how it is communicated to our
workforce, number one.
And number two, I am wondering if the department has ideas
on how the physical layout of the campus might be adjusted to
enhance safety and also to enhance the capacity of your members
to do their job.
Chief Verderosa. Certainly, the physical security is one of
our main issues. We have a very robust Security Services
Bureau, and they handle all the physical security aspects
working very closely with the Architect of the Capitol. The
measures that were put in place post-9/11, we are at the life
cycle end of a lot of the life. We are looking at doing life
cycle replacement. Of course, it is always a very expensive
issue, but it is certainly something that is very necessary.
Ms. Lofgren. Well, let me interrupt, because I don't think
I was clear on my question. For example, where is the
perimeter? I mean, we respect the Fourth Amendment. You have to
have a rationale for inquiring. But at the perimeter of a
facility you don't. So where are the perimeters set and how
should they be set and how would that make a difference for
your troops?
In terms of level of securities in garages, we have garages
that have nothing above them, we have garages that have an
office building above them.
Chief Verderosa. Yes.
Ms. Lofgren. What kind of deployment makes sense in each
one? Those are the things I was thinking of.
Chief Verderosa. Sure. Absolutely. Of course, we always
balance the open campus with the level of security that we
provide, and it is very important to maintain. And it is very
difficult, you are absolutely right, it is a very difficult
balance for our officers. We don't have a physical fence. We
don't have structures that prevent people from walking across
the east front, west front. We use our human intuitive
capability and we deploy personnel.
Obviously, within the framework of the infrastructure,
whether it is the Olmsted wall or whether it is physical
barriers that we install, bollards, barriers that pop up for
vehicular threats and those types of things, we have to be,
obviously, very cognizant of the effect that security has on
the openness and the ability for constituents to visit Members.
Ms. Lofgren. Of course.
Chief Verderosa. And it is a very huge competing interest
in the security issue.
So we focus our main thrust and concentration on the
largest threats, and we are always looking for the individual
threat, which is one of the greatest threats that we have these
days, the individual.
But we have to balance it and accept a modicum of risk in
terms of the physical structures that we put in to prevent
people from approaching the building. We do work very closely
with both this Committee and the Senate Committee on Rules and
Administration.
So to work on those issues, whether it is expanding the
perimeter, allowing access close into the building, or whether
it is initiatives to do inspection of things that people bring
with them to the grounds. So it is a very tenuous line that we
walk, and we take a very hard look at any type of procedure we
are going to employ that could come close to, you know, could
be perceived as a violation of the Fourth Amendment. We
certainly don't want to do anything that would be contrary to
the Constitution.
So it is a work in progress. We work on it continually. It
is a conversation that I have with the Capitol Police Board on
a regular basis and we will continue to have with the
committees of jurisdiction.
Ms. Lofgren. Well, I see my time has expired. Perhaps we
can pursue this further.
Chief Verderosa. Absolutely.
Ms. Lofgren. Thank you.
Thanks, Madam Chairman.
The Chairman. Mr. Nugent.
Mr. Nugent. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I appreciate you
holding this.
And, Chief, welcome.
Chief Verderosa. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Nugent. And I appreciate your time when you came up to
visit with me in the office. And what a different approach, I
will just say this, and I am not blowing smoke, but what a
different approach in regards to your approach and the prior
Chief with inclusion of the union in a weekly or whenever-it-
is-necessary discussion. You know, typically you are going to
probably agree on more things that you are going to disagree.
You are always going to have disagreement. That happens in the
best of families.
But at the end of the day the rank-and-file folks out there
doing the job every day have some great ideas. And I think that
you are moving absolutely in the right direction. And I think
we will be much safer as Members of Congress because of that
collaboration between the two groups.
One of the things that still strikes me when we go back and
look at past history, and we had the Chief here discuss that,
particularly when we had loss of weapons and things like that,
but reading an article where the person who sent the picture
got how many months off without pay and demoted and the person
who actually left the weapon unattended in a location that
could be accessed by their folks received a suspension but
relatively minor in scope.
And I guess I am still a little miffed at the fact that
that supervisor got demoted but then also had a huge suspension
without pay. And I understand it is in litigation, so you
probably can't talk about it. But I would hope just in the
future that what that person did has actually brought out an
issue that needed to be under the light of day so we all know
and we all take confidence in what goes on within the Capitol
Police.
And I will go along with Mr. Brady on this; I have not had
any negative comments with the union at all. That is a
testament to your leadership. I will just be very blunt with
that. It is a testament to your leadership, and I hope that
continues.
You know, one of the things that I know we talked about was
management by walking around, is walking around your
organization and listening to the folks. You are only as good
as the people you surround yourself with, and I would suggest
that your leadership team do the same and I am sure they are
under your leadership.
One of the things Ms. Lofgren had mentioned is security,
and I think that is an issue that we all grapple with from time
to time. And you are right, we have an open campus. But what
exactly, as we move forward in regards to the underground
facilities--I know that the equipment is in place--when are we
actually going to start to do that screening?
Chief Verderosa. We will be doing the security screening,
with the appropriate communication first, very soon. I can't
give you a specific date. I am working with Mr. Irving, the
Sergeant at Arms, and we want to time it right so that we
introduce the screening process. We have had some community
meetings with the staff several weeks ago in terms of how we
would roll it out. And I am working very closely with Mr.
Irving on exactly when we want to do it strategically so we
cause the least amount of disruption to the business process of
the community.
But I would expect sometime in the next several weeks that
we will do it and we will certainly communicate it. I got that
message loud and clear. We are going to make sure that we
properly communicate, make sure everyone is aware of what we
are going to do.
I do appreciate your comments about working with the union,
sir. You know, I respect the troops. You know, I consider
myself first and foremost a police officer, and I am prepared
every time I am out on the street to take police action. I
carry--I don't have it today, because I am wearing this
blouse--but I carry my radio every day, I monitor the radio,
and I take police action when I need to.
And I have tremendous respect for the work that we do here.
I ask a lot of the troops. They are ambassadors. They still
have to enforce the rules and the law, and they deal with 10 to
12 million people a year. And that is just screening them
through the process. There are probably another 10 million who
walk through the grounds that we do, we talk to, we interact
with.
And I am always amazed at how few complaints that we get
from the citizens and the staff about courtesy or those types
of things. They truly are ambassadors. They do hard work. They
are focused on the x-ray machines and the magnetometers,
knowing every time that they have to be 100 percent; they have
to be sharp.
So I appreciate members of both unions being here today,
and I appreciate the relationship I have with the officers. I
always hope to have a positive relationship. Obviously, there
are things that we are going to disagree on, and I have to make
tough decisions and tough choices that affect people. But I
never fall short of understanding that these are people. They
are not numbers. They have families. They have ambition. They
have interests.
And to me, I try to treat people the way I want to be
treated. I am not making a moral judgment on any previous Chief
or anybody else. It is just my approach to how I work with my
staff. And I have leaders and deputy chiefs and civilian
directors who are out with the troops. And I appreciate that
comment as well because they are good role models, they are out
amongst their troops.
Again, we make management decisions and they are tough
decisions and not everyone agrees on the best approach to how
we get to that bottom line, but the officers are a great
resource.
A great example of that is processing the 1,300 or so
arrests that we had a couple of weeks ago during the Democracy
Spring demonstration period.
Now, this was nonviolent civil disobedience. It was
nonconfrontational for the most part. And it took a lot of
planning and effort and a lot of manpower. And it is not me
making the arrests. It is the officers that come in early. It
is the officers that have to be the arresting officer. And it
is the people who do the job that I respect, I have so much
respect for, because really I have worked the posts and I have
done those jobs.
And it is on a Sunday. Sometimes you have got to come in,
you have got to wake up early, and you would rather be doing
something else. But, hey, it is why we get paid the big bucks,
and they do a tremendous job.
But we took a concept and a new approach on how we handled
mass arrests. Other agencies in the city have had the ability
to cite and release people. Traditionally here with the way the
rules are set up and the laws, we have had to have full custody
arrests for most of the arrestees that we handle, even in mass
arrests civil disobedience situations, and it is tremendous in
terms of time and effort. These are the same troops during that
week that had to go day to day for about 10 days and be the
same people being brought in early to handle these arrests.
So we took a concept that I thought could be employed. We
borrowed and adapted the Metropolitan Police's PD 61D cite and
release forms, their policy. We adapted them to ours. We worked
with the Attorney General for the District of Columbia to make
sure that we were using the appropriate charges. And when the
law changed in 2013, it made it easier for us to use this
process. So we employed it and we were able to expedite the
process.
But the reason I bring this up is it really wasn't me. I
had the concept, but the officers are the ones who took--even
from the first day we had arrests, it took about 8 hours to
process 429 people. I mean, it doesn't seem like a lot of time,
but when you look at how--we would still probably be processing
these arrests had we been using the old method, the old mass
arrests method.
In that short duration of 1 week, the officers came up with
a great idea, with a couple of the lieutenants who were running
the mission set, and expedited the process. So that by the end
of that week we processed 300 arrests in 3 hours, which is just
phenomenal, and we had very few issues. And we will further
refine the process based on the suggestions of the officers.
So I agree with you that some of the best ideas come up
from the ranks and rise through the ranks. So I am very
appreciative of the effort of everybody on the CDU, the Civil
Disturbance Unit.
Switching gears on you for one second, yes, the case in the
paper is in litigation. I would prefer not to talk about it.
But the individual is on administrative leave with pay, not
without pay for that period of time. So I wanted to set the
record straight on that.
Mr. Nugent. Okay. And, Chief, thanks for your comments. I
appreciate the indulgence of the Chair. And maybe you ought to
talk to your counterpart in the TSA in regards to listening to
people that work there. It would be helpful. Thank you.
The Chairman. Mr. Vargas.
Mr. Vargas. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, for the
opportunity to ask you a few questions.
First of all, I would like to thank you once again for
meeting with me in my office; letting me know what you are
doing and what you are planning to do. And I appreciate that.
It was very helpful. Thank you.
Secondly, you weren't here earlier, but I thanked the
Capitol Police. I think you have been doing a really terrific
job, and I appreciate that.
I did want to mention one incident that we had here. A
colleague of ours fell hard during one of the snowstorms and
hurt himself. He was found by another colleague of ours, who
then quickly got a couple police officers here, Capitol Police
to bring him inside. And they were very smart to figure out
that he had some chest pains and didn't let him walk away as he
wanted to walk away. They said, ``No, we are calling the
medics,'' and they did, and they got the medical response team
to come.
And again, appreciate their very professional work. You
know, we would have probably allowed him to walk away, and that
would have been a very bad idea. So again, I think the police
did a fantastic job, and I want to thank them for that.
I do want to ask a little bit about the issue of the open
campus. I have been to the Bundestag in Germany, and they do
put a fence around it. It is very difficult to access it. We
see more and more they have a fence now, a double fence over
around the front of the White House. Obviously, that gives you
a lot of protection, but it also prevents people from actually
accessing the White House, which at one point they had access
to.
So there is a balance there, and I think it is important to
give people the opportunity to come and visit their Members of
Congress and the Senate. But it is also interesting the issue
of security, not so much even for us, but those people that do
come and visit us.
So anyway, I appreciate that you said you give that a lot
of interest, a lot of thought. Could you comment a little bit
more on that, if you will?
Chief Verderosa. Sure. We do try to leverage technology to
the extent that we can. And believe me, again, the force
multiplier of technology, the systems. Some of the systems that
I prefer not to talk about in an open forum, but they are there
for us to use, and we do use them, and we deploy them very
effectively.
I think as technology increases and the quality of the
technology, I think we will be able to leverage that.
Obviously, there is no replacement for having an officer on the
beat, on a fixed post or in a patrol area that will focus on
the security, particularly close in. You know, we take sort of
a layered approach. We want to keep the threat as far away as
we can, we push it out, and as you get closer to the concentric
circle you want to have your assets.
We do leverage even the physical security aspects where we
have barriers and kiosks. We have posts, staff, and we use the
buildings as sort of funnels. We can sort of keep eyes on
people and individuals who approach from the various
directions.
But again, we never want to trample on the ability for
people to visit. I am not advocating putting up a fence or
anything like that.
I think with our troops and a focus and an approach where
we maintain our vigilance in terms of looking at the threat,
training our employees what to look for, and being able to make
sure that the troops are fresh and they are able to react
appropriately, I think with training and staffing, that
combination, along with the physical security attributes that
we have, we have been provided with to protect the campus, I
think that the ongoing conversation will continue with the
Capitol Police Board and with the committees to ensure that we
have all the things that we need, particularly technologically,
that will help us and assist us so that we can leverage that
without sort of closing the campus off.
So I know that it is sort of a work in progress. The
technology changes every day. We want to be able to stay ahead
of the curve and we want to keep our finger on the pulse in
terms of what is available to us to sort of use to leverage as
a force multiplier.
Mr. Vargas. Again, thank you very much. And lastly, I know
my time is about up, but I would like to say this. Even though
they do monitor the threat, they are very polite and
professional too, and I appreciate that. I know I have
commented to a couple people in particular. And I appreciate
their professionalism. Thank you.
Chief Verderosa. Thank you.
Mr. Vargas. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
The Chairman. I thank the gentleman.
And, Chief, again, we just want to thank you so much for
coming today. We all are very desirous and looking forward to
working with you shoulder to shoulder, not just you but your
management team and all the rank and file, the union fellows
that are here representing all the rank and files. And just
know that we appreciate it.
Every one of us is coming into these offices and these
office buildings, the Capitol every day, we watch your folks
day in and day out, and do their job so professionally and
bravely and well. And we all have a very high degree of comfort
and security about the professionalism of the brave men and
women of the U.S. Capitol Police force.
This Committee stands by to assist you. And one thing I
would say, and I know I have said this to you privately, I will
say it publicly as well, don't sometimes wait for a hearing or
wait for us to come forward with something. We really want to
know from you if there is a shortfall somewhere that you see as
a particularly critical element of something that we better be
aware of, we need to help with. That is why we are here. We all
work together.
Chief Verderosa. I sincerely appreciate the support and how
cooperative the staff have been with me when I want to bring
forward, if I want to come meet with the Members. I really
sincerely appreciate the opportunity to be here today. Thank
you very much.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Without objection, all Members will have 5 legislative days
to submit additional written questions for the witness, if we
have any, and we will forward them. I ask the Chief to respond
as promptly as he can so that any answers could be made part of
the record.
Without objection, this hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:06 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]
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