In testimony ready for her video look earlier than the House Appropriations Committee, Chief Pittman additionally urged that officers had been underequipped for the violence they confronted and didn’t have easy accessibility to the extra provides of chemical sprays and different substances they wanted to disperse the group. “Instead, the department had to send in personnel to reload our officers,” she mentioned.
Communications additionally faltered, she mentioned, with some officers unable to listen to on their radios over the din of the group. “Without a clear line of communication, officers were operating with limited information about what was occurring and with little instruction from leadership,” she mentioned.
Among the most important issues, she urged, was a delayed response to a plea from her predecessor, Steven Sund, who was chief on the day of the assault and resigned in its aftermath, for the deployment of National Guard troops to assist.
Two days earlier than the assault, Chief Sund requested that the Capitol Police Board declare a state of emergency and authorize a request to safe National Guard help. The board denied the request, based on Chief Pittman’s testimony, however inspired Chief Sund to contact the National Guard to find out what number of members may very well be despatched to the Capitol on brief discover, which he did.
As the group turned an rising risk to the Capitol on Jan. 6, Chief Sund requested for extra assist from federal companies and regulation enforcement companies within the space. “He also lobbied the board for authorization to bring in the National Guard, but he was not granted authorization for over an hour,” Chief Pittman mentioned.
According to a timeline the Defense Department offered to the committee, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser sought assist from the Army at 1:34 p.m., and Chief Sund known as for the D.C. National Guard at 1:49 p.m. But the Army didn’t approve deploying the Guard till 3 p.m. and its members didn’t arrive on the Capitol to assist till 5:40 p.m., greater than 4 hours after Ms. Bowser’s plea.
Two of the members of the Capitol Police Board on the time of the assault have already resigned: Paul D. Irving, the House sergeant-at-arms, and Michael C. Stenger, the Senate sergeant-at-arms. The third member, J. Brett Blanton, the architect of the Capitol, remains to be on the board. Mr. Blanton mentioned in an announcement that he was not included in any discussions about deploying the National Guard.
