“Friday’s attack against Paul Pelosi is an alarming reminder of the dangerous threats elected officials and public figures face during today’s contentious political climate. After the 2011 shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords and the 2017 shooting of Representative Steve Scalise, the United States Capitol Police made security improvements. With the increasing number of threats against elected officials from city council members to federal judges, our work to further our efforts to protect the Members of Congress becomes increasingly urgent. The USCP has worked diligently to investigate reported threats, improve intelligence collection and analysis, and strengthen our partnerships with law enforcement agencies across the country to provide security for Members when they are traveling outside Washington, DC,” says USCP Chief Tom Manger in a statement.

“Since January 6, 2021, we have implemented a long list of improvements, including adding significant staffing to address the security in and around the U.S. Capitol Complex. The Department is on track to meet our goal of hiring nearly 280 officers by the end of the year. It takes the better part of a year to put recruits through the academy. While progress has been made, there is still a lot of work to do. The Department’s long-term plans to expand our protective operations are already underway – their importance only emphasized by Friday’s brutal attack. We will continue to work with our Congressional partners to add additional agents and security enhancements to support our protective operations mission. The USCP has engaged in a review of Friday’s incident.”

“We believe today’s political climate calls for more resources to provide additional layers of physical security for Members of Congress. This plan would include an emphasis on adding redundancies to the measures that are already in place for Congressional leadership. Hopefully you can understand that we cannot disclose the details about these improvements because our country cannot afford to make it easier for any potential bad actors.”