Force Requests Funds For More Officers, Staff
By Sewell Chan, The Washington Post
U.S. Capitol Police want the power to make arrests throughout the Washington area, a proposal that some members of Congress are criticizing as an unwarranted widening of authority that goes beyond the agency’s traditional responsibility to protect the Capitol grounds, lawmakers and visitors.
The expansion of authority, first discussed publicly at a House subcommittee hearing last week, is one of several requests the force has made recently to Congress.
Capitol Police officials want to expand their workforce from 1,393 sworn officers to 1,833 and from 227 civilian employees to 573 by the end of September 2004. Technological improvements, however, could reduce the number of new positions sought.
The department also is seeking approval and funds for off-duty officers to carry smaller versions of the .40-caliber handguns they use as service weapons.
In addition, Capitol Police officials are creating a unit that will ride on horseback and a hazardous materials response team. The department also is planning a merger with the 132-member Library of Congress police force.
The office of the Architect of the Capitol, responsible for the maintenance, operation, development and preservation of the Capitol Complex, plans to build a modern Capitol Police headquarters.
These developments reflect the increased prominence of the Capitol Police after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and the July 1998 slayings of two officers by a gunman at one of the Capitol’s visitor entrances.
Created in 1828, the Capitol Police force historically had jurisdiction on only the Capitol grounds. In 1992, Congress expanded the jurisdiction to an area bounded by H Street to the north, Seventh Street to the east, Potomac Avenue to the south and Third Street to the west.
Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer, who took over the force in June, wants to expand that jurisdiction to include all of the District and suburban jurisdictions from Frederick County to the north and Loudoun County to the west. The proposal was reported previously in Roll Call and the Washington Times.
“If you or a loved one was a victim of a carjacking or mugging, and I was sitting there in a marked car, would you want me to call 911 and wait for help to arrive, or would you want me to take police action?” Gainer asked in a telephone interview yesterday. “We’d be secondary -- a backup -- to local law enforcement.”
Gainer, formerly a top D.C. police official, said current law prevents his officers from intervening in crimes that occur even a few feet outside jurisdictional boundaries.
Even if civilians and crime victims ask for their help, the officers are authorized only to summon local police and monitor the scene.
Gainer said his officers travel frequently to the Capitol Police training facility in Cheltenham and to congressional facilities in the suburbs.
They also are responsible for protecting members of Congress, nationwide, particularly when threats are made against them.
But Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), repeating concerns he raised Tuesday at a House hearing on the Capitol Police budget, yesterday sharply questioned Gainer’s reasons for trying to expand the powers of the police force.
“The Capitol Police chief is overreaching, both in the scope of his responsibilities and in his jurisdiction,” Moran said in an interview.
“It’s almost as though he’s trying to create his own army on Capitol Hill.”
Capitol Police officers who come across crimes in progress, Moran said, should alert local authorities and “intervene in whatever way is practical” but should not “assume the role of another police force.”
Moran also criticized the Capitol Police’s $290.5 million budget request for fiscal 2004, which includes a funding increase that would be used largely to hire more staff.
“The request is for a police force larger than Fairfax County’s and Arlington County’s,” he said. “We have better protection than any single group of employees anywhere in the world.”
Officer Michael C. DeCarlo, who chairs the labor union that represents Capitol Police officers, said yesterday that the expanded jurisdiction would be critical if the Capitol were attacked and legislative functions had to be moved.
“If anything, 9/11 taught us that a core mission of the Capitol Police is the protection of Congress and the continuation of government,” said DeCarlo, a member of the force since 1993.
William H. Pickle, the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms and chairman of the Capitol Police Board, which oversees the Capitol Police, said he supports Gainer’s efforts.
“If we are going to maintain a free and open Capitol, then we need to provide sufficient protection, not only to the institution and the members but also to the officers themselves,” he said.
He added that several federal studies have urged greater Capitol security.
Staff researcher Karl Evanzz contributed to this report.