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21–517 2016

SAFEGUARDING OUR SYMBOL OF DEMOCRACY: 

U.S. CAPITOL POLICE’S MANAGEMENT PLAN 

FOR 2017 AND BEYOND 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE 

ADMINISTRATION 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

MAY 17, 2016 

Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration 

( 

Available on the Internet: 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/house/administration/index.html 


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COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION 

CANDICE S. MILLER, Michigan, Chairman 

GREGG HARPER, Mississippi 

RICHARD NUGENT, Florida 

RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois 

BARBARA COMSTOCK, Virginia 

MARK WALKER, North Carolina 

ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania 

Ranking Minority Member 

ZOE LOFGREN, California 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

PROFESSIONAL STAFF

SEAN MORAN, Staff Director 

JAMIE FLEET, Minority Staff Director 


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SAFEGUARDING OUR SYMBOL OF DEMOCRACY: U.S. CAPITOL POLICE’S MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR 2017 AND BEYOND 

TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2016 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION, 

Washington, DC. 

The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 11:12 a.m., in Room 

1310, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Candice S. Miller 

(chairman of the Committee) presiding. 

Present: Representatives Miller, Harper, Nugent, Davis, Comstock, Brady, Lofgren, and Vargas. 

Staff Present: Sean Moran, Staff Director; John Clocker, Deputy 

Staff Director; Katie Patru, Deputy Staff Director; Erin 

McCracken, Communications Director; Brad Walvort, Professional 

Staff Member; Cole Felder, Legal Counsel; C. Maggie Moore, Legislative Clerk; Tim Sullivan, Staff Assistant; Jamie Fleet, Minority 

Staff Director; Matt Pinkus, Minority Senior Policy Advisor; Khalil 

Abboud, Minority Deputy Staff Director/Director of Legislative Operations; Mike Harrison, Minority Chief Counsel. 

The CHAIRMAN. I call to order the Committee on House Administration for today’s hearing on the U.S. Capitol Police. The hearing 

record will remain open for 5 legislative days so that members 

might submit any materials that they wish to be included. 

A quorum is present so we might proceed. 

We are meeting today to hear from the new U.S. Capitol Chief 

of Police, Matt Verderosa. 

As a Committee, Chief, we certainly want to congratulate you on 

your appointment, and we are so looking forward to continuing to 

work with you shoulder to shoulder. So we appreciate you coming. 

He is going to be talking, of course, today about his vision, his 

direction for the Capitol Police moving forward. Some of the specific items we hope to discuss today include the Capitol Police’s 

budgets, their priorities, recent security events, respective actions 

taken, as well as the Capitol Police security initiatives, both current and future. 

The Capitol Police is a law enforcement agency with a very 

unique mission, certainly. They are charged with protecting and 

serving the U.S. Capitol, the seat of our Nation’s democracy. This 

is an institution, of course, of physical symbols of our free society. 

Unfortunately, our institution of freedom and democracy also is a 

target. So there will always be a need for security restrictions, but 

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stitution. The American people need to be able to access and to 

meet with their Members of Congress. 

Since Congress created the U.S. Capitol Police in 1828, they have 

worked very hard to fulfill this dual mission of safety and accessibility. We certainly understand that this is no small task. Each of 

us, Members, staff, and visitors alike, have the utmost respect for 

the men and women who serve and protect our Nation’s Capital. 

We are holding today’s hearing as part of our Committee’s responsibility for oversight and to review the safety and security of 

the Capitol and its facilities. Our last hearing actually with the 

Capitol Police was in May of 2015. Today the Committee will hear 

from the new Chief on the progress that has been made, his vision 

to continue to develop the force, the goals and priorities for the operation of the Capitol Police. 

Our Committee, of course, works with the Capitol Police on a 

daily basis to ensure that they have the tools that they need, the 

authority, and the support that they need to keep our Capitol safe 

and secure for all. The Capitol Police are responsible for reviewing 

security protocols necessary to keep the Capitol safe and to ensure 

that those protocols are tested and deployed against any threats 

that we might face. 

As with any law enforcement organization, the responsibility for 

meeting the mission begins and ends at the top, and that responsibility now rests with Chief Verderosa. The Chief understands the 

security needs of the Capitol Complex. The Chief has served in a 

number of roles within the Capitol Police since 1986. He has seen 

firsthand how new and variable threats have only increased over 

the years. 

While there are some sensitive aspects about the operations and 

capabilities of the Capitol Police, there certainly are a number of 

items that we would like to discuss and receive an update on as 

well, certainly about some of the various incidents that had happened. 

I know we have had an opportunity, Chief, to talk, I think, privately with all of the Members here about the shooting incident 

that occurred at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center. And by the way, 

that, I will just say, before you can get a chance, your staff, your 

Capitol Police, that thing happened by the book. They did such a 

fantastic job of reacting and responding. I mean, that thing, you 

could write a book, that thing was perfect; that response. 

As well, we had all of these protests, week-long protests that 

happened recently here. We might like to hear about when you 

were processing such large number of arrests, how that all went, 

lessons learned, perhaps, for that. Also about your leadership team, 

your strategic plan, your goals and objectives, training, monitoring 

threats across the campus as well. 

We have talked a little bit about garage security. I don’t know 

if you want to touch on that today. It is always an issue, something 

that we all met about again recently. And I know you have met 

with many Members about that. Our Sergeant at Arms is very, 

very involved in that as well. 

So I will also say, before I ask my Ranking Member to make a 

comment, I think since the gyrocopter incident we have all seen as 

Members of Congress here an increased amount of communication 


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from the U.S. Capitol Police on various incidents. In fact, we probably get almost more information than we need sometimes, but 

more is better. And so I am certainly very appreciative of that. I 

don’t think any Member wants to be in a position where we are 

watching something unfold on the Capitol lawn on FOX News or 

CNN or whatever you are watching. So that, I think, is very much 

appreciated as well. 

And so this Committee, of course, Chief, is here to assist the 

Capitol Police because we all share a common goal, and that is protecting the U.S. Capitol campus and everyone who works here and 

certainly all of the visitors, millions of visitors that come here each 

and every year. 

So we certainly thank the Chief for his appearance here today. 

We are looking forward to his testimony. 

I would like to recognize my Ranking Member, Mr. Brady, for his 

opening statement. 

Mr. BRADY. Thank you, Madam Chair, for holding this very important hearing this morning. 

Good to see you, Chief. Thank you for being here. 

Chief VERDEROSA. Good morning, sir. 

Mr. BRADY. I want to comment briefly and thank the Chief for 

how visible he has been with the congressional community. 

Your predecessor was here 31⁄2 years. I think I met him one time 

toward the end of his tenure. You have been here 3 months. I have 

met with you four times. I appreciate that. 

As the son of a police officer, I know how hard your job can be, 

and I have heard from rank-and-file members about a positive 

change in the tone at the top of the organization, and my staff advise me that we are all working very well together. So thank you 

for that. 

I would also like to thank you for traveling to Philadelphia last 

month and for taking the time to meet with our mayor, Jim 

Kenney, and myself to talk about congressional security at the convention. 

I want to mention this for the benefit of my Republican colleagues, that our security professionals in Philadelphia are very 

impressed with the Chief and our Sergeant at Arms. I thank him 

for coming up and seeing us in Philadelphia. 

You, again, showed the proper respect to all our Members, and 

we appreciate you. So that will speak very well for you and your 

convention in Cleveland also. 

Thank you for your service, and I look forward to hearing your 

statement. 

Chief VERDEROSA. Thank you, sir. 

The CHAIRMAN. I thank the gentleman. 

I think both of those conventions are going to go absolutely 

smooth, right, just smooth. 

Any other Member wish to make an opening statement or comment? 

Okay. Let me formally introduce the Chief. On March 21, 2016, 

the Chief was sworn in as the new Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police. 

Chief Verderosa is the ninth Chief and had been serving as the Assistant Chief of Police since April of 2015. The Chief has served in 

numerous roles with the U.S. Capitol Police since 1986, including 


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positions in the Uniformed and Patrol Division, the Internal Affairs 

Division, the Training and Services Bureau. In addition, he commanded the U.S. Capitol Police’s Review Task Force before becoming Assistant Chief. 

And as Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, Chief Verderosa is responsible for commanding a force of sworn and civilian personnel 

who are dedicated to providing comprehensive law enforcement, security, and protective operation services to the U.S. Congress— 

Members, staff, and as I said, millions of annual visitors as well, 

and to the surrounding complex also. 

So, again, we certainly thank you for joining us, Chief. We have 

your written testimony. The floor is yours. Take as much time as 

you need. We appreciate you coming. 

STATEMENT OF MATTHEW VERDEROSA, CHIEF OF POLICE, 

UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE 

Chief VERDEROSA. Thank you, ma’am. I certainly appreciate the 

opportunity to be here. 

Good morning, Members, and thank you for the opportunity to 

appear before the Committee to discuss the United States Capitol 

Police. I am joined here today by the Department’s Chief Administrative Officer, Mr. Richard Braddock; Deputy Chief Richard Rudd; 

Deputy Chief Fred Rogers; and also Deputy Chief Chad Thomas, 

who is staffing the airwaves right now, watching operations while 

I am here. 

Also with me is our General Counsel, Gretchen DeMar. And 

members, representatives from the department’s Office of Inspector 

General. 

Also, I would like to welcome other members of my executive 

management team and also attending today, and I appreciate their 

presence here today. Our FOP chairman, Jim Konczos of our Labor 

Committee, and Gus Papathanasiou, who is the First Vice Chairman. Also with us are members of the Teamsters, our other union, 

who we work with on a daily basis. 

I would like to thank the Committee for their steadfast support 

of the United States Capitol Police. The regular discussions that we 

have with you and your staff about our programs and management 

of our mission are greatly valued, and I am very grateful for the 

Committee’s engagement and feedback so that we can continuously 

meet the needs and expectations of Congress. 

Secondly, I would like to recognize the men and women of the 

United States Capitol Police. Every day they publicly demonstrate 

how American freedoms that we all hold dear are carried out in our 

Nation’s capital. They work tirelessly to ensure that the Congress 

can conduct its legislative responsibilities without disruption, all 

the while exhibiting the utmost respect for the Constitution and 

the protection of First Amendment liberties. 

I am thoroughly impressed with their performance, which is both 

seen and unseen by the public and the community, and I am 

thankful for their desire to constantly rise to the occasion and handle whatever comes our way. 

I have been in Federal law enforcement for over 30 years, serving in a number of roles. And now as Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, I have the responsibility to you, to the Members of Congress, 


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the Capitol Police Board, the congressional staff, the visitors, and 

my employees to do everything possible to protect and safeguard 

everyone every day in a unique and open environment. 

The threats and risks we face today are dynamic, they are changing, they are sophisticated, and they create a greater need for focus 

on national security. Coordinating with the Capitol Police Board 

and consulting with our committees of jurisdiction, including this 

Committee, the Committee on House Administration, we have developed a 4-year strategy that provides for growth of the department to fulfill three new mission sets in an effort to further enhance the successful long-term protection of the Capitol Complex. 

These mission sets are the result of a constant threat analysis, 

including intelligence gathered by our partners globally and nationally. These initiatives consist of the following: enhanced garage security, as we have talked about on several occasions; pre-screeners 

and additional overwatch personnel at various building access 

points; and also, the further use of the enhanced portal screeners 

that we employed for the first time during the State of the Union. 

Members and staff will see several enhancements as a result of 

the three initiatives. There will be a visible security screening at 

House garage entry points and a more significant officer presence 

outside Capitol Complex doors and access points, including additional K–9 teams and subject to interdiction officers. Visitors entering the House Chamber for major events will undergo additional 

screening through enhanced portal scanners, further keeping potential threats away from the House of Representatives and the 

floor of the House. 

There has been much discussion regarding resources for the department and the long-term viability of these initiatives. As the 

Chief of Police and as a steward of the taxpayers’ dollars, it is my 

fiduciary responsibility to look at every possibility within existing 

assets to accomplish our mission before I seek additional assets 

and resources. The Congress has been very generous to the department, and I will do my due diligence to first look within and not 

request something unless it is truly needed. 

One of the tough decisions I have had to make to meet the new 

mission sets within our current resources is to find staffing to accomplish some of the additional screening requirements within our 

existing budget. To do this, and after discussing my concept with 

Chairman Konczos of the FOP Labor Committee, I have determined that it is most appropriate to modify some of our off-post 

time rotations in the Uniformed Services Bureau from the current 

standard of a one-to-four rotation to a one-to-five during shifts 

when the majority of officers are working, Monday through Friday, 

day and evenings. This will make additional manpower available 

and will result in only approximately 10 minutes less off-post time 

or standby time for employees. 

With these enhancements come important opportunities. The 

modification of off-post rotations will result in more specialty job 

opportunities for employees throughout the department, specifically 

in the area of K–9 and subject interdiction. These officers will provide police coverage in zones outside access points to the complex. 

I should note that this change does not alter the longstanding 

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mains well above the minimum required by the collective bargaining agreement for the purposes of conducting in-service training, allowing for appropriate relief time for officers who routinely 

are focused on working the security equipment. 

While some additional resources will be necessary in the outyears to complete the initiatives and to provide stationary posts, I 

am confident in the department’s ability to meet these new mission 

sets, and we will continue to look for ways to offset any cost and 

potential reapportionment of how we assign personnel. 

In the months ahead, we have a number of high-profile protective events that will require much attention and manpower resources. Later this month, the annual Memorial Day rehearsal and 

concert will take place, followed by the 4th of July celebration on 

the west front of the Capitol. In July, the department will also be 

focusing its attention on the two Presidential nominating conventions in Cleveland, Ohio, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where 

we will be protecting Members of Congress. 

In addition, we are officially planning the 58th Inaugural of the 

President of the United States, which takes place on January 20, 

2017. While this national special security event takes place on Capitol Grounds every 4 years, it is prudent and necessary to begin 

preparations early enough to ensure absolute success in the execution of this significant mission set. 

As the former commander of the department’s policy and planning operations, I fully understand the importance of setting meaningful performance metrics focused on outcomes rather than outputs. We are currently in the process of building the foundation to 

better collect, analyze, and share the data that we collect department-wide with the ultimate goal of having information that allows 

my staff to be better informed in making management and security 

decisions. 

The department is also actively engaged in addressing and resolving recommendations made by the Office of the Inspector General. Since 2006, the USCP Inspector General has made 310 recommendations to the department. We have closed 255 by fully implementing the recommendations. We are actively working on closing the remaining 55 open recommendations, and annually I will 

continue to propose key areas for the Inspector General to examine 

so that she and her team can assist me in making needed changes 

that will make us a better department. 

In closing, I want to share with you some of my priorities for the 

near term. I have always believed that the department’s mission is 

simple yet extremely critical. I want to get back to the basics and 

not overcomplicate policing. I want to leverage existing resources in 

the law enforcement community to become smarter and more efficient, especially in the area of intelligence gathering. I plan to 

place a greater emphasis on training to help our workforce remain 

focused and to fight complacency and to ensure that supervisors 

are prepared to manage. These are the basic areas that I will focus 

on during the next year. 

Finally, I think it is important to discuss and mention the March 

28, 2016, shooting incident in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center. 

From all practical perspectives, I want to say that the screening 

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ing havoc. He was detected to be carrying a weapon during the 

process we employ each day to screen people visiting the Capitol 

Complex. 

We were prepared, we responded appropriately, and it should 

serve as a lesson to others who may want to come to the Hill to 

do harm. Our highly trained officers will stop those individuals 

who wish to do us harm. I am extremely proud of the officers involved in this incident, and I am grateful to our partner agencies 

for their assistance, both throughout the event and following the 

incident. 

Again, thank you for the opportunity to testify here today about 

the United States Capitol Police. I am truly humbled to be here, 

and I would be pleased to answer any questions you have. 

[The statement of Chief Verderosa follows:] 


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The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Chief. 

I would ask, we mentioned about better communication from the 

U.S. Capitol Police to all the Members of Congress. If you could 

perhaps expand on that a bit of how your agency communicates 

and how you work with your brother agencies here locally. For instance, when we had the Navy Yard incident and just communicating with D.C. Police or other agencies as well. How is that all 

working? 

Chief VERDEROSA. Certainly. We have a very good relationship 

with our partner agencies here in D.C., particularly the Metropolitan Police, the United States Park Police, the United States Secret 

Service, Federal Protective Service, Supreme Court Police. We have 

communications, interoperable communications with our partner 

agencies. We have a direct switch line to the Secret Service, the 

Metropolitan Police, the Park Police. 

We work very closely with, we are embedded with several FBI 

task forces, the JTTF, and we have an ongoing relationship with 

the Supreme Court and the Federal Protective Service. And they 

actually man our command center on a regular basis, on a daily 

basis, so that we have direct communications. 

We also work with other agencies on an ad hoc basis. We have 

interoperable radio communications with most of the local agencies, 

and we are working to solidify further the ability to communicate 

directly from a command perspective. We meet regularly with the 

Metropolitan Police in their law enforcement partners meeting 

every Monday. I attend various meetings, as do my subordinate officials, at a multitude of levels, on a multitude of issues, regarding 

the ongoing law enforcement issues, threats, and events that are 

occurring throughout the District of Columbia. 

We certainly have lessons learned from all of these major events, 

including the Navy Yard, the second Navy Yard incident, and the 

difference between the first and second in terms of communication 

was extreme. Incident command, as a matter of fact, Deputy Chief 

Rogers was command post representative for the United States 

Capitol Police during that second ongoing Navy Yard issue. 

We all employ incident command system processes for leadership 

and command, area command, and we communicate on a regular 

and daily basis during events and during the off times. Offshoot of 

some of the gyrocopter incident was communication with the community. We have improved our messaging matrix. And I apologize 

if we give you too much. I would rather have you have too much 

than too little. Obviously, it is important that you know what is 

going on for situational awareness and for the effect that incidents 

have on the legislative process. We take great strides to make sure 

that you have the information that you need, both on the House 

side and the Senate side. 

We shortly will have a joint congressional messaging process that 

is being worked on jointly with all of the stakeholders, and I look 

forward to that. So that will cut out some of the—if there is delay, 

it will certainly cut out redundancy and it will be more efficient. 

The CHAIRMAN. If I could ask just one other question, Chief, and 

I appreciate the answer to the first one. But we talk about investment with the U.S. Capitol Police, and certainly there is no second 

for investing in people and all kinds of technology that can assist 


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you, resourcing you properly. I will tell you, the K–9s are unbelievable. I mean, what a critical component. I mean, those dogs can 

just find things that no computer can, it seems like, right? 

Chief VERDEROSA. Oh, absolutely. 

The CHAIRMAN. Yeah. How do you do with the K–9s? Do you 

need more of them? How do you see that unfolding? 

Chief VERDEROSA. We are expanding our K–9 capability by six 

dogs in the near term. Part of that is the traditional EOD–type 

sweeps, and we have some other new techniques that we use, 

which I would be happy to discuss offline, which will just contribute to being a force multiplier for us in terms of what we do. 

Absolutely, the dogs are invaluable. They can do many things 

that humans can’t. They detect things at long distances. They can 

detect things that we obviously would not know were there. So we 

do literally hundreds and thousands of sweeps every year with the 

dogs, and again, they are invaluable to us. 

We currently have an opening in our—and we get tremendous 

competition for the openings in the K–9-unit. It is really, truly incredible. 

The CHAIRMAN. Right. Thank you very much. 

I recognize our Ranking Member, Mr. Brady. 

Mr. BRADY. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. 

Chief, as you know, I do represent Philadelphia. Thank you for 

your visit. That is where the Democratic National Convention will 

take place. But I would like for you to discuss your preparations 

from the Capitol Police perspective, not only in Philadelphia but 

also in Cleveland. What were your preparations there? 

Chief VERDEROSA. Absolutely. Our convention planning is well 

underway. We have been working. Our Dignitary Protection Division has the lead. The Secret Service is the lead planner for both 

events, both in Philadelphia and in Cleveland. 

As part of the NSSE broad approach and Committee approach, 

we planned these events within that framework. So we have employed the NSSE framework for any number of major events, including previous conventions, State of the Union addresses, and the 

inaugurals, and it is really a sound system that we cover all bases. 

Our Dignitary Protection Division has made multiple visits to 

both venues, both cities. They have procured the requisite lodging. 

And we are in the process of designing a security plan for those 

specific venues, both the actual convention venues and any ancillary venues for events that are occurring outside the main venue. 

I appreciate the opportunity to travel to Philadelphia and meet 

with you, and I appreciate the introduction that you gave us to the 

Philadelphia officials. It helped me tremendously in my ability to 

communicate the message to my troops and to make sure that we 

are doing all the things that we need to do. 

We are going to be traveling to, either myself or representatives, 

along with the House Sergeant at Arms and other stakeholders, to 

Cleveland in the very near future, just as we did in the Philadelphia trip. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners, both State, local, and Federal, to ensure that the security 

plan for the Member protection—and that is the reason we are 

going to be there, to make sure that the Members of Congress have 


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a safe event and we can protect the interests of our statutory 

protectees. 

We will continue to regularly brief the Capitol Police Board, and 

my staff is available to brief the Committee at your request on the 

status of the planning. 

Mr. BRADY. Thank you, Chief. 

Also, it goes without saying, the people you brought here, you 

have a pretty good relationship with the other unions, the Teamsters and the police unions. And I also know because they are not 

knocking down my door, and they have been for the last 3 years, 

every other month coming in and trying to complain about what we 

can do to be helpful. That is not happening. So I know you are 

doing a good job. 

But just tell me, how often do you meet with your reps? 

Chief VERDEROSA. I meet with Chairman Konczos and his team, 

it is about every 2 weeks. But in between, his staff and my staff 

are working on issues. Dominic Storelli, formerly of House Administration, is my Chief of Staff, and he works directly with Jim on 

a number of issues. I meet on a number of issues, whether it is contract negotiations or just daily grievance type issues. 

The philosophy for me, and I have known Chairman Konczos and 

Gus Papathanasiou for many years, particularly Jim for almost 30 

years, and we have a mutual respect for each other’s positions. I 

have asked Jim to be here today, and I appreciate his attendance. 

Since I was appointed, we reinstituted the regular meetings. I plan 

on continuing the regular meetings. 

We also believe—I think we both believe that there is significant 

common ground that we can address issues, try to resolve issues 

at the lowest level before they become grievances, and we work on 

things of mutual interest. Of course, we will probably disagree on 

some issues, but I think we have the kind of relationship that we 

will be able to work through those issues in an amicable way and 

try to do what is best for the Congress. 

Mr. BRADY. Thank you, Chief. And thank the men for the job 

that you do every single day. And it is a pleasure to be working 

with you. 

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Harper is recognized. 

Mr. HARPER. Thank you, Madam Chair. 

And, Chief, thank you for being here. I know this has been a 

very sobering weekend with the memorial service that was Sunday 

and how that, I know, means so much to you, and your attendance 

we greatly appreciate. 

You know, last week, the House passed some important bills, and 

one of which was to fund the Bulletproof Vest Program to help 

local law enforcement with that lifesaving bulletproof vest, to help 

on those funding issues there. 

And I know you and I had an opportunity to meet. I want to 

thank you for coming to my office and for us having that opportunity. And as I told you in that meeting, if I had an issue or a 

problem, I am going to come to you and we will discuss it. I won’t 

be running to the press to talk about it. You and I will have a 

chance to do that, and I want to reiterate that here. 


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But what can we do as a Committee and as individual Members 

of Congress to help you do your job? And I am not talking about 

the funding issues. 

Chief VERDEROSA. Sure. 

Mr. HARPER. What else can we do? 

Chief VERDEROSA. I thank you for meeting with me, both privately and for your comments today, sir. I appreciate the Committee’s support on initiatives, whether it is garage security or portal 

scanners or any of the other issues that come up. 

It is interesting, because it is such a large institution and I have 

a very large workforce. Sometimes it takes a little while for information to filter down. We are working on the communication piece. 

But it is also incumbent on us to assist the Sergeant at Arms on 

both sides and the leadership to communicate the message of any 

changes that we do. 

Change does not come easy for people, both within the department and in general. I know that. I have a 24-year-old. It is hard 

to change anything without an argument or a reason. I have to explain my reasoning. And I try to do that because it is the right 

thing to do. I want to be able to communicate changes. And that 

is one of the reasons that I do meet with the union leadership. I 

want to have that open communication. 

But I also want to have that with the community, and I intend 

to continue to visit Member offices and try to advise you all, everybody, both on the Committee and off, on what we are doing and 

why we do things. Because I think if you have the information, it 

helps sell the message and it helps us change sort of the mindset, 

whether we are going to institute new operations or new procedures. 

So I appreciate the opportunity to be able to come to the Members and be able to explain why we do things. I think it is important to maintain that communication. 

Mr. HARPER. Chief, firearm qualifications, certifications are very 

important, and I know we are in an interim here—— 

Chief VERDEROSA. Yes. 

Mr. HARPER [continuing]. With the range being out of place. Tell 

me what you are doing in the interim and how the new facility will 

be an improvement over the old. 

Chief VERDEROSA. Appreciate the question, sir. 

We are in our current cycle, even though we are off site. In the 

interim, while our range is down and we are preparing for the 

opening—the reopening—of the new range, I want to thank the 

Congress and the Architect for providing the funds and the space 

and the ability to have a range that is so close to where we work. 

What it does for us is it helps us minimize the impact of having 

our sworn workforce off the grounds in a status that is either not 

working or in training. It is travel time. It really helps us to have 

the range here. We had the old range in the Rayburn for over 50 

years, and we got tremendous amount of use of the range. And I 

couldn’t even quantify how much time and effort we save by having 

the range locally. 

Our goal is to have the new range open up soon, by Labor Day, 

and have it in use for at least another 50 years. It will certainly 


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outlast me. But so far in this cycle we have qualified 87 percent 

of the Police Department. 

Now, we have reaped some benefit, even though there is a little 

bit of cost associated with sending them out to Cheltenham, Maryland, where our entry-level academy is. We have maximized the 

use of that time by continuing the training day. So we send officers 

out for the entire day rather than have them traveling back to the 

Hill. So we leverage the ability to use some more of our training 

time during that extra day. 

I look forward to having the range back here on the Hill, though, 

as you can see, we probably will be able to finish our current cycle 

by June 1, hopefully, if not, sometime in June, and then we will 

move onto the second. We have semiannual qualification, so we 

shoot twice a year in the fiscal year. We are a little bit off the cycle, 

however. With the indulgence of the stakeholders, we have a great 

plan to get the range up and running, and it really will provide us 

with the ability to change how we train. It is a dynamic range, and 

it is really helpful for us to be able to tactically use a range. 

Mr. HARPER. Great. Thank you, Chief. 

And I yield back. 

The CHAIRMAN. The Chair recognizes Ms. Lofgren. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Thanks very much. 

And welcome to you, Chief. It is good to meet you. 

And I am hoping that at some point we can have a closed session 

with the Chief, because there are some questions it probably 

wouldn’t be smart to ask in a public environment, but that we 

should get the answers to. 

Just two things. I was concerned in discussing this with the prior 

Chief, that although there was communication with other law enforcement agencies, there didn’t appear to be a written mutual aid 

protocol. And so I am interested in not going through it today, but 

in reviewing that with you in terms of the protocol, what it is, and 

how it is communicated to our workforce, number one. 

And number two, I am wondering if the department has ideas on 

how the physical layout of the campus might be adjusted to enhance safety and also to enhance the capacity of your members to 

do their job. 

Chief VERDEROSA. Certainly, the physical security is one of our 

main issues. We have a very robust Security Services Bureau, and 

they handle all the physical security aspects working very closely 

with the Architect of the Capitol. The measures that were put in 

place post-9/11, we are at the life cycle end of a lot of the life. We 

are looking at doing life cycle replacement. Of course, it is always 

a very expensive issue, but it is certainly something that is very 

necessary. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Well, let me interrupt, because I don’t think I was 

clear on my question. For example, where is the perimeter? I mean, 

we respect the Fourth Amendment. You have to have a rationale 

for inquiring. But at the perimeter of a facility you don’t. So where 

are the perimeters set and how should they be set and how would 

that make a difference for your troops? 

In terms of level of securities in garages, we have garages that 

have nothing above them, we have garages that have an office 

building above them. 


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Chief VERDEROSA. Yes. 

Ms. LOFGREN. What kind of deployment makes sense in each 

one? Those are the things I was thinking of. 

Chief VERDEROSA. Sure. Absolutely. Of course, we always balance 

the open campus with the level of security that we provide, and it 

is very important to maintain. And it is very difficult, you are absolutely right, it is a very difficult balance for our officers. We don’t 

have a physical fence. We don’t have structures that prevent people 

from walking across the east front, west front. We use our human 

intuitive capability and we deploy personnel. 

Obviously, within the framework of the infrastructure, whether 

it is the Olmsted wall or whether it is physical barriers that we install, bollards, barriers that pop up for vehicular threats and those 

types of things, we have to be, obviously, very cognizant of the effect that security has on the openness and the ability for constituents to visit Members. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Of course. 

Chief VERDEROSA. And it is a very huge competing interest in the 

security issue. 

So we focus our main thrust and concentration on the largest 

threats, and we are always looking for the individual threat, which 

is one of the greatest threats that we have these days, the individual. 

But we have to balance it and accept a modicum of risk in terms 

of the physical structures that we put in to prevent people from approaching the building. We do work very closely with both this 

Committee and the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. 

So to work on those issues, whether it is expanding the perimeter, allowing access close into the building, or whether it is initiatives to do inspection of things that people bring with them to the 

grounds. So it is a very tenuous line that we walk, and we take 

a very hard look at any type of procedure we are going to employ 

that could come close to, you know, could be perceived as a violation of the Fourth Amendment. We certainly don’t want to do anything that would be contrary to the Constitution. 

So it is a work in progress. We work on it continually. It is a conversation that I have with the Capitol Police Board on a regular 

basis and we will continue to have with the committees of jurisdiction. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Well, I see my time has expired. Perhaps we can 

pursue this further. 

Chief VERDEROSA. Absolutely. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Thank you. 

Thanks, Madam Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Nugent. 

Mr. NUGENT. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I appreciate you 

holding this. 

And, Chief, welcome. 

Chief VERDEROSA. Thank you, sir. 

Mr. NUGENT. And I appreciate your time when you came up to 

visit with me in the office. And what a different approach, I will 

just say this, and I am not blowing smoke, but what a different approach in regards to your approach and the prior Chief with incluVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:15 Oct 08, 2016 Jkt 021517 PO 00000 Frm 00025 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A517.XXX A517

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sion of the union in a weekly or whenever-it-is-necessary discussion. You know, typically you are going to probably agree on more 

things that you are going to disagree. You are always going to have 

disagreement. That happens in the best of families. 

But at the end of the day the rank-and-file folks out there doing 

the job every day have some great ideas. And I think that you are 

moving absolutely in the right direction. And I think we will be 

much safer as Members of Congress because of that collaboration 

between the two groups. 

One of the things that still strikes me when we go back and look 

at past history, and we had the Chief here discuss that, particularly when we had loss of weapons and things like that, but reading an article where the person who sent the picture got how many 

months off without pay and demoted and the person who actually 

left the weapon unattended in a location that could be accessed by 

their folks received a suspension but relatively minor in scope. 

And I guess I am still a little miffed at the fact that that supervisor got demoted but then also had a huge suspension without 

pay. And I understand it is in litigation, so you probably can’t talk 

about it. But I would hope just in the future that what that person 

did has actually brought out an issue that needed to be under the 

light of day so we all know and we all take confidence in what goes 

on within the Capitol Police. 

And I will go along with Mr. Brady on this; I have not had any 

negative comments with the union at all. That is a testament to 

your leadership. I will just be very blunt with that. It is a testament to your leadership, and I hope that continues. 

You know, one of the things that I know we talked about was 

management by walking around, is walking around your organization and listening to the folks. You are only as good as the people 

you surround yourself with, and I would suggest that your leadership team do the same and I am sure they are under your leadership. 

One of the things Ms. Lofgren had mentioned is security, and I 

think that is an issue that we all grapple with from time to time. 

And you are right, we have an open campus. But what exactly, as 

we move forward in regards to the underground facilities—I know 

that the equipment is in place—when are we actually going to start 

to do that screening? 

Chief VERDEROSA. We will be doing the security screening, with 

the appropriate communication first, very soon. I can’t give you a 

specific date. I am working with Mr. Irving, the Sergeant at Arms, 

and we want to time it right so that we introduce the screening 

process. We have had some community meetings with the staff several weeks ago in terms of how we would roll it out. And I am 

working very closely with Mr. Irving on exactly when we want to 

do it strategically so we cause the least amount of disruption to the 

business process of the community. 

But I would expect sometime in the next several weeks that we 

will do it and we will certainly communicate it. I got that message 

loud and clear. We are going to make sure that we properly communicate, make sure everyone is aware of what we are going to do. 

I do appreciate your comments about working with the union, 

sir. You know, I respect the troops. You know, I consider myself 


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first and foremost a police officer, and I am prepared every time 

I am out on the street to take police action. I carry—I don’t have 

it today, because I am wearing this blouse—but I carry my radio 

every day, I monitor the radio, and I take police action when I need 

to. 

And I have tremendous respect for the work that we do here. I 

ask a lot of the troops. They are ambassadors. They still have to 

enforce the rules and the law, and they deal with 10 to 12 million 

people a year. And that is just screening them through the process. 

There are probably another 10 million who walk through the 

grounds that we do, we talk to, we interact with. 

And I am always amazed at how few complaints that we get from 

the citizens and the staff about courtesy or those types of things. 

They truly are ambassadors. They do hard work. They are focused 

on the x-ray machines and the magnetometers, knowing every time 

that they have to be 100 percent; they have to be sharp. 

So I appreciate members of both unions being here today, and I 

appreciate the relationship I have with the officers. I always hope 

to have a positive relationship. Obviously, there are things that we 

are going to disagree on, and I have to make tough decisions and 

tough choices that affect people. But I never fall short of understanding that these are people. They are not numbers. They have 

families. They have ambition. They have interests. 

And to me, I try to treat people the way I want to be treated. 

I am not making a moral judgment on any previous Chief or anybody else. It is just my approach to how I work with my staff. And 

I have leaders and deputy chiefs and civilian directors who are out 

with the troops. And I appreciate that comment as well because 

they are good role models, they are out amongst their troops. 

Again, we make management decisions and they are tough decisions and not everyone agrees on the best approach to how we get 

to that bottom line, but the officers are a great resource. 

A great example of that is processing the 1,300 or so arrests that 

we had a couple of weeks ago during the Democracy Spring demonstration period. 

Now, this was nonviolent civil disobedience. It was nonconfrontational for the most part. And it took a lot of planning and 

effort and a lot of manpower. And it is not me making the arrests. 

It is the officers that come in early. It is the officers that have to 

be the arresting officer. And it is the people who do the job that 

I respect, I have so much respect for, because really I have worked 

the posts and I have done those jobs. 

And it is on a Sunday. Sometimes you have got to come in, you 

have got to wake up early, and you would rather be doing something else. But, hey, it is why we get paid the big bucks, and they 

do a tremendous job. 

But we took a concept and a new approach on how we handled 

mass arrests. Other agencies in the city have had the ability to cite 

and release people. Traditionally here with the way the rules are 

set up and the laws, we have had to have full custody arrests for 

most of the arrestees that we handle, even in mass arrests civil disobedience situations, and it is tremendous in terms of time and effort. These are the same troops during that week that had to go 


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day to day for about 10 days and be the same people being brought 

in early to handle these arrests. 

So we took a concept that I thought could be employed. We borrowed and adapted the Metropolitan Police’s PD 61D cite and release forms, their policy. We adapted them to ours. We worked 

with the Attorney General for the District of Columbia to make 

sure that we were using the appropriate charges. And when the 

law changed in 2013, it made it easier for us to use this process. 

So we employed it and we were able to expedite the process. 

But the reason I bring this up is it really wasn’t me. I had the 

concept, but the officers are the ones who took—even from the first 

day we had arrests, it took about 8 hours to process 429 people. 

I mean, it doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but when you look at 

how—we would still probably be processing these arrests had we 

been using the old method, the old mass arrests method. 

In that short duration of 1 week, the officers came up with a 

great idea, with a couple of the lieutenants who were running the 

mission set, and expedited the process. So that by the end of that 

week we processed 300 arrests in 3 hours, which is just phenomenal, and we had very few issues. And we will further refine 

the process based on the suggestions of the officers. 

So I agree with you that some of the best ideas come up from 

the ranks and rise through the ranks. So I am very appreciative 

of the effort of everybody on the CDU, the Civil Disturbance Unit. 

Switching gears on you for one second, yes, the case in the paper 

is in litigation. I would prefer not to talk about it. But the individual is on administrative leave with pay, not without pay for that 

period of time. So I wanted to set the record straight on that. 

Mr. NUGENT. Okay. And, Chief, thanks for your comments. I appreciate the indulgence of the Chair. And maybe you ought to talk 

to your counterpart in the TSA in regards to listening to people 

that work there. It would be helpful. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Vargas. 

Mr. VARGAS. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to ask you a few questions. 

First of all, I would like to thank you once again for meeting 

with me in my office; letting me know what you are doing and 

what you are planning to do. And I appreciate that. It was very 

helpful. Thank you. 

Secondly, you weren’t here earlier, but I thanked the Capitol Police. I think you have been doing a really terrific job, and I appreciate that. 

I did want to mention one incident that we had here. A colleague 

of ours fell hard during one of the snowstorms and hurt himself. 

He was found by another colleague of ours, who then quickly got 

a couple police officers here, Capitol Police to bring him inside. And 

they were very smart to figure out that he had some chest pains 

and didn’t let him walk away as he wanted to walk away. They 

said, ‘‘No, we are calling the medics,’’ and they did, and they got 

the medical response team to come. 

And again, appreciate their very professional work. You know, 

we would have probably allowed him to walk away, and that would 

have been a very bad idea. So again, I think the police did a fantastic job, and I want to thank them for that. 


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I do want to ask a little bit about the issue of the open campus. 

I have been to the Bundestag in Germany, and they do put a fence 

around it. It is very difficult to access it. We see more and more 

they have a fence now, a double fence over around the front of the 

White House. Obviously, that gives you a lot of protection, but it 

also prevents people from actually accessing the White House, 

which at one point they had access to. 

So there is a balance there, and I think it is important to give 

people the opportunity to come and visit their Members of Congress and the Senate. But it is also interesting the issue of security, not so much even for us, but those people that do come and 

visit us. 

So anyway, I appreciate that you said you give that a lot of interest, a lot of thought. Could you comment a little bit more on that, 

if you will? 

Chief VERDEROSA. Sure. We do try to leverage technology to the 

extent that we can. And believe me, again, the force multiplier of 

technology, the systems. Some of the systems that I prefer not to 

talk about in an open forum, but they are there for us to use, and 

we do use them, and we deploy them very effectively. 

I think as technology increases and the quality of the technology, 

I think we will be able to leverage that. Obviously, there is no replacement for having an officer on the beat, on a fixed post or in 

a patrol area that will focus on the security, particularly close in. 

You know, we take sort of a layered approach. We want to keep 

the threat as far away as we can, we push it out, and as you get 

closer to the concentric circle you want to have your assets. 

We do leverage even the physical security aspects where we have 

barriers and kiosks. We have posts, staff, and we use the buildings 

as sort of funnels. We can sort of keep eyes on people and individuals who approach from the various directions. 

But again, we never want to trample on the ability for people to 

visit. I am not advocating putting up a fence or anything like that. 

I think with our troops and a focus and an approach where we 

maintain our vigilance in terms of looking at the threat, training 

our employees what to look for, and being able to make sure that 

the troops are fresh and they are able to react appropriately, I 

think with training and staffing, that combination, along with the 

physical security attributes that we have, we have been provided 

with to protect the campus, I think that the ongoing conversation 

will continue with the Capitol Police Board and with the committees to ensure that we have all the things that we need, particularly technologically, that will help us and assist us so that we can 

leverage that without sort of closing the campus off. 

So I know that it is sort of a work in progress. The technology 

changes every day. We want to be able to stay ahead of the curve 

and we want to keep our finger on the pulse in terms of what is 

available to us to sort of use to leverage as a force multiplier. 

Mr. VARGAS. Again, thank you very much. And lastly, I know my 

time is about up, but I would like to say this. Even though they 

do monitor the threat, they are very polite and professional too, 

and I appreciate that. I know I have commented to a couple people 

in particular. And I appreciate their professionalism. Thank you. 

Chief VERDEROSA. Thank you. 


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Mr. VARGAS. Thank you. 

Thank you, Madam Chair. 

The CHAIRMAN. I thank the gentleman. 

And, Chief, again, we just want to thank you so much for coming 

today. We all are very desirous and looking forward to working 

with you shoulder to shoulder, not just you but your management 

team and all the rank and file, the union fellows that are here representing all the rank and files. And just know that we appreciate 

it. 

Every one of us is coming into these offices and these office buildings, the Capitol every day, we watch your folks day in and day 

out, and do their job so professionally and bravely and well. And 

we all have a very high degree of comfort and security about the 

professionalism of the brave men and women of the U.S. Capitol 

Police force. 

This Committee stands by to assist you. And one thing I would 

say, and I know I have said this to you privately, I will say it publicly as well, don’t sometimes wait for a hearing or wait for us to 

come forward with something. We really want to know from you if 

there is a shortfall somewhere that you see as a particularly critical element of something that we better be aware of, we need to 

help with. That is why we are here. We all work together. 

Chief VERDEROSA. I sincerely appreciate the support and how cooperative the staff have been with me when I want to bring forward, if I want to come meet with the Members. I really sincerely 

appreciate the opportunity to be here today. Thank you very much. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. 

Without objection, all Members will have 5 legislative days to 

submit additional written questions for the witness, if we have any, 

and we will forward them. I ask the Chief to respond as promptly 

as he can so that any answers could be made part of the record. 

Without objection, this hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 12:06 p.m., the committee was adjourned.] 

Æ 


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