WASHINGTON — The U.S. Capitol Police inspector general is set to testify Thursday about the law enforcement agency’s failings during the Jan. 6 attack and make recommendations on how to prevent a future attack.
Inspector General Michael Bolton will tell the House Administration Committee that the Capitol Police “failed to disseminate relevant information obtained from outside sources, lacked consensus on the interpretation of threat analyses, and disseminated conflicting intelligence information regarding planned events for January 6, 2021,” according to his prepared statement.
Bolton will also say that the force needs a “culture change,” acting as a protective agency that can prevent events like Jan. 6 instead of being primarily reactive, according to his statement.
April 13, 202101:38
The inspector general also says in his prepared remarks that to increase the efficiency of its intelligence resources, the police force should consider reorganizing to form a single intelligence bureau.
“A formal intelligence training program is necessary; otherwise, the department cannot ensure the proper training of its intelligence employees or ensure that they are up to date on policies and procedures,” he adds.
Bolton’s testimony comes after he wrote a report that found that the Capitol Police ignored critical intelligence ahead of the Jan. 6 riot, including overlooking a warning that “Congress itself is the target.” NBC News obtained the 104-page report Wednesday, which has not been made public.
In it, the inspector general found that the Capitol Police’s intelligence unit warned three days before the riot that Trump supporters, who believed his false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen, had made specific plans to target Congress on Jan. 6 and were “actively” promoting violence.
The police force also lacked policies and procedures that left them severely unprepared to deal with the deadly insurrection, he found.
The Capitol Police’s Civil Disturbance Unit “was operating at a decreased level of readiness as a result of a lack of standards for equipment, … a lapse in certain certifications, an inaccurate CDU roster, staffing concerns for the unit, quarterly audits that were not performed, and property inventories not in compliance,” the report’s executive summary says.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
