So, Where Were They?
List of law enforcement agencies in the District of Columbia:
According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2008 Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, the District has six local law enforcement agencies employing 4,262 sworn police officers, about 722 for each 100,000 residents. This is the highest proportion of police officers to citizens of any state or territory.
The oldest agencies are the:
United States Marshals Service, founded September 24, 1789
United States Park Police, founded in 1791 as park watchmen to guard federal property in DC
United States Mint Police, founded in 1792
United States Capitol Police, founded in 1828
Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, founded in 1861 (took the place of DC City Watch, founded in 1802)
United States Secret Service, founded July 5, 1865
District of Columbia Protective Services Division, founded by Congress in 1899 under the Watchmen in Municipal Facilities Act
Primary DC law enforcement (local and federal)Edit
District of Columbia Department of Corrections
District of Columbia Housing Authority Office of Public Safety
District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department (local municipal police covering all of DC with approximately 3,800 officers)
District of Columbia Protective Services Division
District of Columbia Public Schools Police – Law Enforcement Division (has city-wide jurisdiction on 119 DCPS owned and leased properties)
District of Columbia Library Police – Office of Public Safety
Metro Transit Police Department (has jurisdiction in Metro rail and near Metro bus stops in DC, VA, and MD; 526 officers)
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police (jurisdiction actually falls within specific locations in VA and MD [Reagan National and Dulles airports]; formerly FAA Police)
United States Marshals (deputies at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia fulfill duties similar to those of a sheriff in local court matters, while deputies at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia perform more traditional and federal district court duties)
United States Park Police (national parks federal police for the National Mall, monuments, parkways, and all national park service properties in D.C and surrounding regions; several hundred officers; shares jurisdiction with D.C. Metropolitan Police in addition to exercising federal authority)
Washington National Cathedral Police (officers licensed by the MPD as special police officers)
Federal police agencies with a uniformed presence in District of Columbia area.
Main article: Federal law enforcement in the United States
The majority of federal law enforcement agencies have some type of jurisdiction and/or headquarter offices in the District of Columbia; however, some are more overt than others.
Amtrak Police Department (quasi-federal, as Amtrak is government-owned)
Armed Forces Retirement Home Police (located in northwest District of Columbia; an independent, executive-level federal agency with a force of fewer than a dozen police officers and investigators; formerly known as the United States Sailor’s and Airman’s Home and the Soldier’s Home; established in 1834)[citation needed]
Bureau of Engraving and Printing Police
Central Intelligence Agency Security Protective Service (Provides law enforcement and security services to CIA facilities in and around the District)
District of Columbia National Guard Military Police/Security Forces, if any (unique in that the DC Guard always answers to the President rather than to a governor)
Federal Bureau of Investigation Police (the FBI Police are the uniformed officers responsible for the protection of FBI facilities and employees)
Federal Bureau of Prisons (United States Department of Justice)
Federal Protective Service (tasked with protection of federal facilities not otherwise protected by other agencies)
Government Publishing Office Police (formerly Government Printing Office Police)
Military Police (active and reserve of the various United States Armed Forces): Military Police Corps (United States Army); Master-at-arms (United States Navy); United States Air Force Security Forces; USMC Military Police; and the United States Coast Guard and United States Coast Guard Police
Naval District of Washington Police (Responsible for the Washington Navy Yard, Anacostia, Bolling Air Base, Naval Research Lab, et al.)
Smithsonian Police and National Zoo Police (Smithsonian museums federal special police who maintain concurrent jurisdiction with the U.S. Park Police)
Supreme Court Police (Supreme Court Federal Police; under a hundred officers)
United States Capitol Police (Congressional Federal Police; many hundreds of officers)
United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP Officers enforce customs laws at Reagan National and Dulles International Airport, and at the Port of Washington)
United States Department of Veterans Affairs Police (VA Police, responsible for the District of Columbia, VA Medical Center)
U.S. Federal Reserve Police (the law enforcement arm of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the US)
United States Mint Police (the law enforcement and protective service of the United States Mint, assigned to the US Mint Headquarters Facility)
National Gallery of Art Office of Protective Services (National Gallery of Art federal police and special police who maintain concurrent jurisdiction with U.S. Park Police)
United States Park Police
United States Pentagon Police (Pentagon Police also have jurisdiction at Department of Defense-leased property throughout the National Capital Region, and at the US Military Court of Appeals in District of Columbia)
United States Postal Police (uniformed division of United States Postal Inspection Service)
United States Secret Service Uniformed Division (Uniformed Division was formerly known as the White House Police Force)
——Wikipedia
There’s absolutely no excuse, rationale, or justification for what happened without the benefit of a highly visible police presence and show of force…
01/08/2021 @ 6:09 pm
There’s a lot involved, and some of it may not just be mistakes.
We start with the Capitol Police, not a very professional outfit from what I’m told by someone familiar with them. They were short-staffed due to COVID, but they should have known what was coming because it was all over the internet. And we don’t know why they took so long to ask for help. Some help was not forthcoming, but more on that later.
There was definitely a racial difference, and it’s perhaps more blatant than even you thought. I can’t tell you my source, but the Capitol Police figured there wasn’t that big a threat specifically because it was White guys.
There were people in the building, Congresspeople, who were asking for the National Guard. The Pentagon refused to allow it for hours because they were allegedly afraid of the optics. However, what’s important here is who “the Pentagon” is in this case: the Office of the Secretary of the Army, a Trump appointee. This was a civilian decision, not a military decision.
The Capitol Police did one thing right. Very right. More right than we might have thought. They made Congresspeople the priority over securing the building. How in danger were they?
There are a lot of photographs of these guys going into the building with many of them carrying bundles of zip ties. These guys were after hostages. This was a full-blown coup attempt.
As this becomes more and more clear, anyone associated with the White House or defending the White House is going to develop problems.
01/09/2021 @ 8:52 pm
Incredible. Not only the lack of protection if it were a normal day, but this was an occasion that trump had trumpeted about and, as it turns out, the plans for invasion had been out in the open for a long time…and, speaking of long times, extra forces were kept back for a couple of HOURS while the rioters rampaged, and just due to incompetence or whatever, no congress people got kidnapped, shot, hung… IN CROY A BLE
01/10/2021 @ 9:58 am
A group of black girl scouts and boy scouts descending on the nation’s capitol for a jamboree would have been met with stiffer scrutiny and much more visible police presence….